From The Daily Caller
Sen Tom Cotton Calls Democrats’ Fight To Hold Coronavirus Bill Hostage Over Climate Change, Other Liberal Dreams A ‘Disgrace’
Chris White Tech Reporter
March 23, 2020 3:08 PM ET
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said Monday that his Democratic colleagues are holding up the Senate’s coronavirus bill so they can push green energy policies, among a slew of other “radical” measures.
The Arkansas senator railed against his colleagues, telling his Twitter followers that they were putting Americans’ lives at risk over global warming. His criticism came after Senate Democrats failed to pass a procedural cloture vote on a phase-three coronavirus stimulus bill.
“This report is correct. Pelosi & Schumer are willing to risk your life, your job, your retirement savings for a radical, left-wing wish list that has nothing to do with this virus. Disgraceful,” Cotton told his Twitter followers Monday after senators failed to hash out an agreement.
Democrats on the House select committee were among the first to ask leadership to consider climate change before jumping into the legislation. (RELATED: Senate Fails To Pass Cloture Vote On Coronavirus Stimulus Bill)
“In responding to this crisis, we must be careful not to exacerbate the ongoing climate crisis,” Democratic Reps. Kathy Castor of Florida, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, and Jared Huffman of California wrote in a March 20 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
They want any such bill helping the aviation industry to include “adoption of low-carbon fuels, support for greenhouse gas efficiency standards, and/or electrification of ground support equipment at airports.”
“We must strongly oppose misguided or surreptitious attempts to boost polluters at the expense of the public health. Instead, we should look for solutions that can also move us toward a clean energy economy and to a healthier, stronger and more just America,” they wrote. “We have a few ideas.”
Phase-three of the Senate bill would give $1,200 checks to every American, with married couples receiving $2,400. That check will go to Americans making less than $75,000 per year. Income earners who make above $99,000 would not receive any money.
Some activists argued for using the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve as leverage.
“The Republican COVID Stimulus 3 bill does include funds to purchase oil for the SPR. That’s the leverage to get ITC with direct pay/cash grant included,”Jigar Shah, co-founder and president of Generate Capital, said in a tweet Monday.
“I think there is an outside chance we could get the ITC with direct pay on COVID Stimulus 3. As long as the SPR money is in play, we have a chance,” he added, referring to the bill, which contains the $3 billion in the Department of Energy requested Friday to restock the SPR with low-priced oil.
The DOE’s move came after crude prices fell into the $30s as the Saudis push for a cut in output to prop up prices before Russia insisted flooding the market with hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil. Moscow is worried the United States will use shale oil to take advantage if Saudi Arabia ease off production. Oil prices have hovered around $30 per barrel ever since.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
From the article: “Phase-three of the Senate bill would give $1,200 checks to every American, with married couples receiving $2,400. That check will go to Americans making less than $75,000 per year. Income earners who make above $99,000 would not receive any money.”
I sure hope they don’t mean *every* American. The only people who should be getting money are those who have suffered losses because of the Wuhan virus crisis.
They don’t need to send me any money because I haven’t lost any money and won’t lose any money. Unless they want to reimburse me for some stock market declines, but that’s not necessary either since you only lose money in the stock market when you sell, and I haven’t sold. I’m expecting an upturn soon. 🙂
Anyway, don’t pay every American. That’s not necessary.
I liked Mark Cuban’s idea about the Federal Government allowing businesses to overdraw their bank accounts to cover their current expenses and the federal government would cover all these extra costs. This would eliminate any big bureaucracies that would normally be needed to administer such a program and would make money immediately available.
Another good idea is giving money to small businesses and if they use that money to pay their current expenses and use it to keep their current employees employed, then the business is not required to repay that money to the government.
Big businesses will get loans which will require repayment in the future.
The Democrats look terrible doing what they are doing by trying to hold this relief bill hostage to their laundry list of leftwing desires.
Trump’s approval rating for handling the Wuhan virus crisis is 55 percent favorable according to a new ABC poll, and 60 percent in another poll. That’s despite the Democrats doing everything they can do to undermine Trump in a time of crisis, including this instance of blackmail.
The Democrats are going to pay at the polls. They are making a perfect case for why they should no longer wield power.
America held hostage: Day 1.
I sure hope they don’t mean *every* American. The only people who should be getting money are those who have suffered losses because of the Wuhan virus crisis.
And how exactly do they efficiently and quickly determine that in the middle of an ongoing crisis where not all the people who will suffer losses have done so yet? In short, there is not way to accurately do so. So giving the checks out to everyone (under a certain income level) is the quickest, easiest, and most efficient way to get money to those who have been *and* those who will be hurt by this crisis when all is said and done. Yes, some who will get the checks won’t need it, but that leads to point two:
They don’t need to send me any money because I haven’t lost any money and won’t lose any money.
Great, then you can write them a check back for the amount they give you, or donate it to a worthy charity that is in need of the money for their work helping people during this crisis, or use it to buy groceries for your elderly family, friends, and neighbors, or any other selfless acts of kindness (and thus contribute to the stimulating of the economy that is the purpose of the checks). No one says you have to keep the money.
John,
What does my AGI from last year have to do with my need TODAY? For example, say I was an Airline pilot that made >$100K last year, but am laid off now. Should I be excluded from getting a check? I still have mortgage to pay, children to feed, etc. This idea that “wealthy” folks, like this hypothetical pilot, have stacks of cash laying around is beyond stupid. Not that sending checks to everyone is much smarter unless you are trying to empty the treasury in record time and crash the economy. I like Tom’s ideas much better. Sure they are not perfect plans, but they are much more targeted and should result in less waste/misappropriation.
Paul,
It’s not an exact science, but there really isn’t a better way to quickly determine who does or does not need the money and there is precedent for it. Checks have been sent this way before, so we know, despite whatever qualms you have about it, that 1) it’s doable and 2) that it does work at getting the money to as many who need it as possible in a relatively short timeframe. Is it perfect? no. no one said it was. But frankly there haven’t been any better ideas that also accomplish 1 & 2.
Tom’s (Mark Cubans’ actually) has never been tried before and doesn’t currently have any existing method of implementation. so we don’t know how doable it is (are you going to nationalize the banks in order to force them to do what you’re asking?) or how quickly it can be put in motion.
I don’t know a lot of details about Cuban’s plan but I think he was just wanting the government to guarantee these overdrawn business accounts so the banks would not lose money on the deal. I don’t think it would require forcing the banks to do anything. They would be making money on the deal with the U.S. government guaranteeing any loses they would incur by extending credit to the small businesses..
This way, if the law passed, any small business owner who had bills and employees to pay could just write a check on the business account to cover these costs. That’s about as simple as it can get from the standpoint of the small business person. He’s up and running by just writing a check.
The government would probably want to limit this to already established business bank accounts because any program like this is very susceptible to fraud.
Tom,
Banks would be forced to change how they deal with overdrawn accounts. So yes, they’d be forced to do something and they handle overdrawn accounts the way they do for very valid reasons you know. You do know what overdrawing an account means, don’t you? it’s spending more money than you have in that account. Which means the banks have to have a hell of a lot more cash on hand to handle the billions their business accounts would now be overdrawing. If the government is going to cover that, there needs to be a system set up and put into place to do so. there currently isn’t one. In other words it’s something that is easier to say than to do. (and that’s before you even get into how do you determine if it’s a valid coronavirus related overdraw verses any other kind of overdraw that wouldn’t be covered – as you say lots of room for fraud is not thought through and handled properly – and do you really thing something that is rushed into place – as this idea would have to be in order to get it up and running in time to be useful – will be thought through and handled properly? seriously?)
Currently the US appears to have a President working tirelessly to help ordinary people through a crisis, whilst those in the left/green movement are showing their true character and utter disdain for these people. I sincerely hope our American friends and allies remember this come November.
That *is* the way Trump appears, and I think the American people are going to remember how the Democrats acted so badly and would not cooperate with Trump taking action, while the nation is in a crisis. A day of reckoning is coming in November.
Sarcastically speaking;
When this idiotic behaviour blows up in the Democrats/Demon Rats faces,alienating even the last diehard Democrat and leading to extinction at the polls,our progressive comrades will invoke conspiracy theory 1001,that being Trump did this to them.
For it is never their fault.
Ever.
When their naked avarice,lust for power, casual evil are exposed and rejected by the voters,it is because the voters are racist,stupid and unfit to choose.
When they are caught by their own lies,they insist black is white and those exposing them are evil..
Why do they still exist as a political force?
You are assuming that the average man/woman in the street ever hears the reason why the Democrats are doing this.
In this morning’s news, the hold up was described as Democrats holding out for more worker protections. And who can be against protecting workers?
Indeed. they certainly won’t hear it from the MSM. It’s up to alternative media, individuals like you and I when talking with our acquaintances and Republican candidates for office to point it out. Unfortunately there will still be many who only get their “facts” about what happened from the fake-news MSM.
I wonder exactly the same with Labour in the UK. They covered up mass gang rape, which was given the far less serious sounding ‘grooming gang’ by the media, to push their diversity mantra- even going so far as to claim that young girls, often pre-teen, were basically asking for it. Anyone who disagreed or dissented was inevitably tagged as a racist bigot, Islamophobe, etc. When voters eventually turned against them they were utterly bemused and simply doubled down on the ‘stupid, white racists who don’t know what’s good for them’ theme. They really do live in a bubble and think that ANY price is worth paying to achieve their socialist utopia.
In any other context, demanding a higher price in a crisis would be called gouging.
For Nancy Pelosi, it’s business as usual.
The price gouging is getting serious around here. My local convenience store usually (before the virus) sells a 2-liter bottle of Dr. Pepper for $2. I went in there the other day and the price was $3.50. I won’t turn them into the authorities even though they are officially breaking the law, and even though price gouging on Dr. Pepper is a very, very serious offense. When President Trump declared a national emergency that automatically put in effect a law in my State against price gouging.
Instead of turning the owner in, I’ll just go down the street and buy my Dr. Pepper at the supermarket where the price is $1.08 per bottle. No price gouging down there.
Two trillion is 2 x 10^12. Assuming that twenty thousand (2 x 10^5) people die of the virus, that works out to 1 x 10^7 or $10 million per death.
I am old and infirm with many ailments, so I am among those most likely to die. I would like my $10 million now, please, before it’s too late.
I know how to spend it. Believe me I do. The trickle down multiplier effect means everybody would get a piece of it. This is the best solution bar none. I prefer a bank deposit, but I’ll take the cash.
Where did you get the notion that the money is only for those who have died of this disease?
From the 911 Twin Towers aftermath relief fund. The victims and/or their families got paid handsomely. Why is this situation any different? War is war. Why ask? Do you expect a cut?
Correction: the MSM is just now stating the “stimulus” will be $6 trillion. So my cut should be $30 mil.
Unless you believe everybody should get some. Six trillion divided by 330 million citizens is $18,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. Do you think they plan on sending everybody a check for $18 grrr?
Think again. They plan on sending everybody a BILL for $18 grrr. Who else is going to pay for it? Your grandchildren? The as-yet-unborn? With interest?
It’s an ugly sight: the Greedheads are running amok in the Capitol. The professional grafter jackal pack howls with glee.
Or maybe the $6 trillion should go just to temporarily furloughed “workers” (you got to love the Marxist lingo). How many of those are there? Shoot me a number.
From my web search I found “Reports estimate 2.25 million Americans will claim unemployment next week, a 700% increase from this week.” Let’s round that up to 3 million for ease of calculation. Six trillion divided by 3 million is 2 million. So every furloughed “worker” is going to get a check for $2 million smackers from the gummit?
Really? I mean really? Absolute madness.
Where in the fake-news MSM did you hear $6 trillion. The bill just past last night/this morning and sits at $2 trillion.
The 2 trillion isn’t all going to individuals, it’s being divided among the following:
1) Big business – $500 billion in loan backing
2) small businesses – $350 billion in aid
3) Hospitals – $150 billion for equipment and supplies
4) Individuals ($1200 checks for those with incomes up to 75k)
5) Unemployed – unemployment extension and $600 addition unemployment cash per week
3) aid to state and local government
Only items 4 & 5 are money going directly to individuals.
No, I mean really no, Mike.
First, as already pointed out, the number is 2 trillion not 6 trillion, so get that fake news number out of your head, you’re just showing how uninformed you are every time you bang on about it.
Second the whole 2 trillion is not going out as checks to individuals. Checks only account for a portion of the money. The majority of the money is going to businesses, hospitals, and state/local governments.
you do realize the Twin Towers Fund is a charity (IE individual citizens donated most of the money the fund paid out). Feel free to either set up a Wuhan Virus aftermath relief fund or lobby others to do so on your behalf if you wish to make valid comparisons with the Twin Towers Fund
Mike you are starting from a false assumption.
The money isn’t for the dead or even for the ill. It’s to offset the impact of shutting down the economy. From workers who lost wages to businesses that lost business due to the mandated closing of the economy.
“Democrats on the House select committee were among the first to ask leadership to consider climate change before jumping into the legislation.”
WHY???? If they can’t get the legislation passed on its own then FORGET IT being put in this stimulus bill!
Why didn’t the House pass this climate change legislation in the period of Sept – January? If’its so damn important they should have passed it then! The answer is that they know they have to attack it to a must-pass bill in order to get it through. Unethical political extortion at its finest!
No doubt people are tired of me saying this. The crises come and the crises go, but the “solutions” are always the same.