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© 2021 AFPBiden signs huge stimulus bill ahead of coronavirus speech
By Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© 2021 AFP
56 Comments
The Avenger
Another great day for America, delivered exclusively by Democrats.
Biden moved up the bill signing a day even though it meant forgoing the big PR event because it meant checks would go out a little bit sooner.
Trump held up check disbursement so they could print his signature on them.
bass4funk
No, not far off. Statistical fact. After the breakdown of how the money will be allocated Sen. Toomey’s prime observations and objections were: $350 billion for state and local governments
Despite GOP objections, $350 billion was included for state and local governments to make up for lost tax revenue during the pandemic. But reports show that state and local governments fared much better than expected in 2020. Many states, including California, Virginia, Arizona, Colorado and others, ended up collecting more in 2020 than they did the previous year. A J.P. Morgan survey called 2020 “virtually flat” with 2019. One reason could be the federal supplement to unemployment benefits.
Hmmm...so actually we are paying for what now if these States are doing good?
schools will receive $128,554,800,000 in federal aid but only 5 percent of that money will be spent in fiscal year 2021.
Not sure how that will help, maybe reopening up the schools could help a bit more, but I digress....
Yeah, Democrats keep trying to push that myth on the nation.
Lukebeston
Stop beating the dead horse.
PTownsend
Unemployed Americans need help now. They'll get a bit of support from this, but even better is getting them back to work. The Trump Republican economy that primarily benefitted the rich needs to be revised to reflect current times, not remain stuck in the mythical garden days when America was 'great'.
Didn't Trump Republicans promise repeatedly they had a better health care plan? The reality that they couldn't come up with one better than 'Obamacare' shows they didn't even try. They didn't try because the Trump R's already had the best healthcare money could buy and didn't care a single anything about the rest of the country.
dagon
Some of the headlines about this are ridiculous: "Biden solves poverty."
Some in the progressive wing of the party want to make the payments recurrent but they are being drowned out by people in their own party siding with Republicans to position themselves as "fiscal conservatives".
Realistically, there is good in the bill: unemployment benefits and rent relief along with the one time stimulus.
However, it is coming with plenty of corporate welfare and gifts for Wall Street.
bass4funk
I did as well.
$270 million for the National Endowments of the Arts and Humanities
$200 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services
$10 million for the “preservation and maintenance of Native American languages”
How is this going to give COVID relief?
I know Democrats think the average American voter is stupid but....
No, it really isn’t and that’s sad, but typical and really not surprised
PTownsend
On a socialism for the rich aside, it would be nice for the general public to see a list of corporations that got bailout moneys from the Trump era bailout as well as got money from this one.
Then it would be helpful to see whether jobs for those other than the executive class were actually saved by the bailout money. And how much money the executives whose corporations were bailed out kept for themselves.
dagon
@PTownsend
This is pre-pandemic, at the start of the Trump admin, but is a taste of the corporate welfare under Trump.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/12/09/hypocrisy-corporate-welfare-its-bigger-trump
It would be nice if Biden took a stand against this but unfortunately he is just putting a kinder face on it.
Jsapc
Artists, writers and museums were also deeply affected and need relief money too. Why would you ever object to giving money to a museum so that it doesn't close down? Are you against art in general?
bass4funk
They can wait. The people that are affected by the disease and that are sick and dying need the money NOT the arts or artists and humanities and museums. All that crap can wait. Outrageous! They absolutely don’t need money and shouldn’t get a dime at this point. If that weren’t in the bill you might have had more Republicans supporting it.
Bob Fosse
Outraged Republicans philistines are more than welcome to return the cheques. But of course won’t.
Jsapc
So what you're saying to us is that republicans voted no to a 1.9 trillion bill because of... 400 millions spent on art? They voted no because of 0,0002% of the total amount of the bill? Are republicans really that petty, cheap and dishonest? I guess they are, huh.
PTownsend
I agree. Sad, but to be expected from a centrist like Biden. But the choice in 2020 was between a centrist like Biden or a full-on far right, plutocrat like Trump. Had to hold my nose. Again. Not much to choose from in America's version of 'democracy', but still better than authoritarian for life (or until 2036).
Bob Fosse
So you finally accept the seriousness of this disease, but only want to support people who are sick and/or dying.
You won’t need to be making any more comments about economic impact and businesses then, because ‘all that crap can wait’. Unemployed? Yes. Sick or dying? No. Too bad? Wait?
viking68
Now the legislature should move to get rid of the filibuster and pass election reforms.
That would remove the power the minority party has exerted over U.S. national politics.
JeffLee
@bass4funk
“$200 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services…How is this going to give COVID relief?”
Because museums and libraries have been direct victims of the COVID lock downs, many being forced to shut their doors during the pandemic.
bass4funk
I understand, but these are government institutions, they will be alright, but the mom and pop small business shop, the elderly, small businesses that people rely on that people need for physical survivial need help first and formost not the arts.
Yes, but the museums can wait, not the small local independent grocery or the local diner that serves hundreds of people a day.
Which is far different than subsidizing the humanities dapartment, come on now....
bass4funk
Biden a Centrist??? Now that is funny. Not even close. Lol
That seems to be the sad pickle we are in now, enjoy.
Wolfpack
The biggest single theft from future generations in American history. Just as expected from the modern neo-Marxist Democrat party. I am almost shocked that no Republicans supported this “stimulus” for an already growing economy. I would give them credit for that if they hadn’t already voted with the Dems over the last year for more than $4 trillion in extra spending on top of the regular annual budget overspending.
If he can hold on to his health Biden is well on his way to taking Obama’s crown as the debt king. Good luck Old Joe - I know you can do it!
plasticmonkey
People who work in the arts (which are crap) and have lost their jobs should get jobs in corporate finance or high tech. Otherwise they and their kids deserve to starve.
bass4funk
100% spot on and getting there faster than we ever thought we would.
Jsapc
Why are you acting as if the bill was taking money out the hands of people that need help to give it to museums, when in reality it's giving to both as the same time, as it can and well should?
And again, are you really using 0,0002% of the amount of the bill to criticize its whole validity? Do you realize how that sounds?
Bob Fosse
Years later even when you are shown the figures and statistics you’ll still prefer to live in the alternate reality you get from tucker, so what’s the point in ‘debating’ now?
bass4funk
I understand, but people in the service industry that feed the people should be first in line, not the Ghetty Museum, but even those people need to eat, so at least they can get sustenance from the people that put food on the table for the people that work at....museums.
zurcronium
Tired old lies repeated by the tired old always wrong republican trolls. These feeble excuses were put out to pasture in the 1980s when austerity policies ruined the country under Reagan/Bush and fixed under Clinton. If the 1% are not making out like bandits the republicans are not serving their masters and therefore will fight anything that helps the other 99% of the American people.
Get ready for the Biden Boom and it will come just about the time the rich start to pay their fair share of taxes again instead of less as a percent than a middle class worker.
Biden is delivering on his promises and the country and the world will boom as a result. The Biden boom.
Yes, happy days are coming again after yet again republicans drove the country into near depression as they always do when they are in power.
Jsapc
Hey by the way, where were all the fiscal conservatives when the Trump tax cuts added 1.8 trillion to the national debt? Tax cuts that served absolutely no purpose apart from making rich people richer (with money that will never trickle down anywhere, because trickle-down economics are an urban legend)? I don't remember any of our usual suspects whining about the debt 3 years ago. Strange, huh? I guess we can all see your priorities.
Helping rich people, no problem. Helping people in need, panic.
bass4funk
What?
Well, the money is not going to 99% to the people pushed by the 1% that want YOU to think that everyone is getting money...actually they kind of are getting money, but it's not going into the hands of most people.
Yes, all the more reason for people to pack up and leave these blue states. Texas and Florida, even Tennesee are booming now.
To everyone that finally left these oppressive States that are unwilling to do what the people are asking for and that is to reopen schools, allow people to work, and stop taxing them into oblivion. But the steaks in Texas does taste better anyway.
bo
Good old Joe, him and his team are getting the USA back on track.
Trump days are long gone and hopefully never to return.
Now Joe and team need to tax the rich more and more so that everyone can have a better life.
Covid is killing more poor than rich, so let's spread the wealth and help one another through this pandemic
Strangerland
Early 2000s: Bush starts two wars on the company credit card, crashes the economy
2010s: Republicans blame Obama for spending money to clean up the mess Republicans left.
2020s: Trump burns down the country and leaves the economy in disarray with higher unemployment than any time since the great depression, and half a million deaths due to his incompetence
2020s: Republicans blame Biden for spending money to clean up the mess Republicans left.
Thee failures in a row: two Bushes and a Trump. The democrats have come in three times in a row now and cleaned up after the three complete and utter failures the Republicans put up in a row. And the pubs whine.
There is literally no doubt that the Republicans are the party of failure. They only know how to obstruct. They are entirely useless when it comes to understanding how the real world works.
Seapig
@Bass
OK, let me see if I’ve got this straight.
That’s about 2.5% of the bill that you say is not COVID relief related, so what you’re saying the other 97.5% of the bill is, right?
plasticmonkey
Hmm...
What about service workers at the Ghetty Museum? Or you know, like the custodians and gardeners at the Ghetty Museum who get paid by the Ghetty Museum? Back of the line for those elitist snobs?
plasticmonkey
I take it that you'll be returning your stimulus check.
I'm still trying to parse that sentence, but I read it to mean that you'll be returning your stimulus check.
Pukey2
How refreshing to see an adult sitting behind that desk!
Lazarus Knows
What is "modern neo-Marxism"? Is it when someone does a thing I don't like because Qanon told me to dislike it?
Goodlucktoyou
Press questions please.
bass4funk
I’m saying that 97% won’t reach the public.
No, lol! Not even in the slightest. But for people that need that kind of money would be helpful if they can get their hands on it, but it’s only a short quick fix. If the Dems want to add more to the ND I’m sure they will, it’s just a blank check so keep scribbling numbers on it. Now is the time to seriously invest in Gold.
lincolnman
See - deprogramming from a cult does work...
Debt King? I think that title belongs to the Great Orange Oracle. Two trillion dollar bailout bills, a $1.9 trillion tax give-away to the Wall Street fat cats and Top 1%, a stagnant and weak GDP for three years - and a cratered hole for the fourth. He can add "Debt King" to his "Bankruptcy King" title.... And it certainly looks like "King of the Inmates" will be coming next...
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/542691-john-dean-only-a-matter-of-how-many-days-until-trump-is-indicted
We now know what Repubs and Trump supporters will be doing for the next four years - outright lying... They'll continue to push the false narrative that 90% of this bill isn't COVID related. They've invested themselves in "The Big Lie", and now will just continue that tactic for everything else. Expect everything that comes out of their mouths and on the far-right bubble sphere to be just plain lies.
Just ignore them. When they start to rant, just turn the channel. Let them live in their small fairy tale world where Trump is still President, Hugo Chavez is alive and stealing votes, and Jewish-funded space lasers cause forest fires...
bass4funk
Bur people can live and the best part is, they can live in freedom while spending a lot less in taxes and keep more of their money, fantastic.
Bob Fosse
You’ve said that several times in the past year. Have you done it yet?
Strangerland
Like the 3trillion in tax cuts that Trump made for the super-rich?
dagon
And the vast amount of that is not going to museums.the arts or Native Americans but to the crony capitalist fake McJob grifters and Wall Street that received even more under Trump. And whom are never called out in the Republican talking points.
Jsapc
Money that they can use to start a fire when they freeze off because their state got off the national grid and the electrical system completely imploded, yeah. Awesome.