Posted on Mar 6, 2021
Senate stalls as Biden makes final plea for $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief
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The US Senate came to an hours-long standstill on Friday, with off-the-floor negotiations among Republicans and moderate Democrats over the future of unemployment benefits for jobless Americans, a compromise that threatened to derail a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief legislation that is critical to Joe Biden’s efforts to combat the pandemic.
Attention centred around moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin of West Virginia as Republicans offered last-minute revisions to jobless aid, along with more than 100 amendments to the aid package as it clears its last major hurdle one year after a public health crisis that has upended American life and its economy.
Democratic lawmakers and the White House are urging its passage before current federal relief on a number of fronts expires on 14 March.
A version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives last week would increase weekly federal unemployment benefits from $300 to $400 a week, through August.
Attention centred around moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin of West Virginia as Republicans offered last-minute revisions to jobless aid, along with more than 100 amendments to the aid package as it clears its last major hurdle one year after a public health crisis that has upended American life and its economy.
Democratic lawmakers and the White House are urging its passage before current federal relief on a number of fronts expires on 14 March.
A version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives last week would increase weekly federal unemployment benefits from $300 to $400 a week, through August.
Senate stalls as Biden makes final plea for $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief
Posted from independent.co.ukPosted in these groups: 
United States Senate
Joe BidenU.S. House of Representatives
Washington
Congress
United States Senate Joe BidenU.S. House of Representatives Washington Congress
Posted >1 y ago
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I'm all for helping/supporting Americans. I have a real problem with all the money going to other countries. That in my opinion is not covid relief.
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This. Is. Not. A. Coronavirus. Relief. Bill.
It is a pork barrel FULL of special interest and non-COVID related spending with some COVID stuff thrown in to make it sound like Democrats are trying to help the everyday American while pushing through a wishlist, and to give them sound bites to talk about how Republicans "don't want to help the American people."
And it got struck down again, but PLEASE tell me, Sen Sanders, how jacking the minimum relief way up will HELP with your what the President and his mouthpiece (Psaki) kept harping on - jobs and unemployment. How does RAISING the cost of labor help create jobs and get more people back to work?
The liberals in Washington can't even focus on working realistic solutions to fixing fixable problems. They want to do everything at once. Yes, when "everything is broken" everything needs to be fixed (I would argue very strongly that everything is NOT broken, but I am operating off the assumption that the liberal believe it is, and are working from that perspective). But any manager / leader / executive worth even HALF a shit understands that in order to make progress, you have to prioritize and fix the most important things FIRST before moving on to other things. When you try do everything at once, either you get everything done - in a substandard manner which is often worse than just leaving it alone - or you get nothing done.
Identify the top two or three priorities that need to be addressed NOW (I would argue jobless benefits, finding a way to juice the labor market, and help to SMALL business, but that is just me) and pass a smaller, focused bill which addresses those needs. Once it is passed, THEN tackle the next two or three problems, with a smaller, focused relief bill - and make sure that second bill either does not counteract the first one OR counteracts only portions of the first bill which have served their purpose and effectively stabilized the focal point (i.e. don't create job incentives to get unemployment down and then raise the cost of labor which will drive unemployment back up - or at least slow or stagnate the drop in unemployment).
When everything is a priority, nothing is. Essentially, the liberals in Washington are telling us we are not a priority.
(And yes, I am a Conservative - though not a Republican. But I would be - and have been - equally critical of Conservative plans. I was quite critical of the Trump era tax cuts, for instance. It just so happens that this particular spending package is being pushed, campaigned for, supported, and sponsored by liberals.)
It is a pork barrel FULL of special interest and non-COVID related spending with some COVID stuff thrown in to make it sound like Democrats are trying to help the everyday American while pushing through a wishlist, and to give them sound bites to talk about how Republicans "don't want to help the American people."
And it got struck down again, but PLEASE tell me, Sen Sanders, how jacking the minimum relief way up will HELP with your what the President and his mouthpiece (Psaki) kept harping on - jobs and unemployment. How does RAISING the cost of labor help create jobs and get more people back to work?
The liberals in Washington can't even focus on working realistic solutions to fixing fixable problems. They want to do everything at once. Yes, when "everything is broken" everything needs to be fixed (I would argue very strongly that everything is NOT broken, but I am operating off the assumption that the liberal believe it is, and are working from that perspective). But any manager / leader / executive worth even HALF a shit understands that in order to make progress, you have to prioritize and fix the most important things FIRST before moving on to other things. When you try do everything at once, either you get everything done - in a substandard manner which is often worse than just leaving it alone - or you get nothing done.
Identify the top two or three priorities that need to be addressed NOW (I would argue jobless benefits, finding a way to juice the labor market, and help to SMALL business, but that is just me) and pass a smaller, focused bill which addresses those needs. Once it is passed, THEN tackle the next two or three problems, with a smaller, focused relief bill - and make sure that second bill either does not counteract the first one OR counteracts only portions of the first bill which have served their purpose and effectively stabilized the focal point (i.e. don't create job incentives to get unemployment down and then raise the cost of labor which will drive unemployment back up - or at least slow or stagnate the drop in unemployment).
When everything is a priority, nothing is. Essentially, the liberals in Washington are telling us we are not a priority.
(And yes, I am a Conservative - though not a Republican. But I would be - and have been - equally critical of Conservative plans. I was quite critical of the Trump era tax cuts, for instance. It just so happens that this particular spending package is being pushed, campaigned for, supported, and sponsored by liberals.)
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so - riddle me this - if $1600 goes to 70 million eligible Americans, where is the other 80% of the $1.9 trillion going?
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