Monday, July 20, 2020

Mitch McConnell's Impressive Phase Four Bailout Plan


Mitch McConnell
From my perspective, no new COVID-19 bailout program should be implemented.

That said, under current political dynamics a new bailout phase is going to happen.

Reports indicate that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to release his phase four legislation this week. Axios is reporting on what it is likely to look like:
Sources familiar with McConnell's forthcoming measure tell us the proposal will include: 
  • A heavy emphasis on education, giving schools increased funds to help prepare for fall reopenings.
  • Widespread liability protection, including for restaurants, hotels, hospitals, universities and school districts. (Many Democrats are strongly opposed to this, but McConnell has said this is a red line).
  • Increased funding for COVID-19 testing and vaccine research and development. The bill is also likely to include a tax credit for vaccine R&D.
  • Extension of the Paycheck Protection Program . Republicans will propose that the $134 billion left in the previous program’s coffers be reappropriated for phase four. Small business' revenue loss will be a key parameter for eligibility, one source said.
  • A payroll tax cut “is having a renaissance moment,” another source said, who says to expect something on that given Trump's insistence it be included.
 There will not be additional money for state and local governments. But Republicans want to ease previous guidelines for how states can spend the leftover money appropriated in the CARES Act to ensure money gets to smaller localities.
That there will be no additional money for state and local governments outside of education is very big. An additional bailout of states and cities would cost trillions and there should be no bailout of governments that destroyed their local economies and tax base by the lockdowns. Let them shrink their governments. I am not in favor of federal money for education either but I can live with that if there is no other new money allocated to state and local levels.

I can also support widespread liability protection for restaurants, hotels, hospitals, universities and school districts (but not for coerced vaccines). In a private property society most assuredly almost all businesses and other institutions would operate under liability protection.

I do not favor funding of further COVID-19 testing or vaccine research and development. As I have pointed out previously, it is COVID-19 testing and data collection that fuels the fearmongering and does little else (see: To Save the Economy and His Re-Election Prospects, President Trump Should Have Pulled a John Cowperthwaite Months Ago). And vaccine research and development should be done by the private sector.

I am not a fan of the  Paycheck Protection Program but I can live with using up the money already approved for the program.

I am also in favor of a payroll tax cut but I would like to see a cut in federal government expenditures of the same size that match the payroll cut.

It is also good to see that there is no mention of a continuation of the $600 per week Federal unemployment payment to each unemployed individual on top of state unemployment payments. It is this $600 per week that is keeping a lot of people fat and happy on the couch watching Netflix rather than getting back to work. This madness of paying people not to work needs to stop.

Of course, this McConnell plan is only step one.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might choke on her mask after seeing it.

According to Axios, McConnell will brief the Republican conference on Tuesday then roll it out publicly later this week.

-RW


1 comment:

  1. "I can also support widespread liability protection for restaurants, hotels, hospitals, universities and school districts (but not for coerced vaccines). In a private property society most assuredly almost all businesses and other institutions would operate under liability protection."

    -- RW, could you expand on why you're in favor of the state coercively exempting suppliers from liability, and how this would arise in your PPS? I don't see it as a uniform principle in a NAP-based society.

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