FDR SAVED AMERICA FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION, TODAY'S SENATE LEADER: “FORGET THAT”

…a true caricature of the Senate Leader Mitch (Moscow) McConnell

The Senate Leader sometimes forgets his responsibility

A couple of my readers have complained that even though our lying president has

deserved all his negative attention.  And that it was all his lies that have

brought this pandemic on, they are correct that there are plenty of others

within his party that also deserve some negative “calling out”.

Therefore, the main man of the hour is, the GOP leader of the US Senate, 

Mitch McConnell.

Even the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, had to assure the nation’s

mayors that she would insist on state and local funding in the next coronavirus relief bill. 

She called out the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s recent remarks, “to the contrary”for helping out the local or state operations.  Our San Francisco Democratic Speaker,particularly criticized McConnell for suggesting that Congress would allow 

any state to declare bankruptcy, rather than provide them with federal funds.

It is the federal governments responsibility to collect federal taxes and

then reapportion a part of those taxes to support the states and cities.

In fact, there are states such as California, and New York that send more money 

to the Feds, than they receive annually from the federal government. 

So, why would these states ever consider declaring bankruptcy?

But, there are other states, such as Mitch McConnell’s own state of Kentucky,

that have never sent more money to the Feds, than they receive from

the federal government.

“What could he [McConnell] possibly be thinking? I don’t want anybody to think

that could be a possibility,” Pelosi told all the mayors on a conference

call about McConnell’s state bankruptcy idea.

Pelosi said a sizable amount of money for state and local governments was the

starting point for legislation she hopes could be ready for the first week of May,

when the Congress is scheduled to reopen for business.

Cities and states are facing dire financial situations during the pandemic,

squeezed by both the loss of revenue from areas like their sales and 

entertainment taxes as well as the cost of dealing with the spreading virus.

Many companies and states will have to lay off or furlough workers or cut

services to balance their budgets, especially absent federal assistance.

The city and state officials were gathered on the Pelosi call as part of

Bloomberg Philanthropies’ sixth virtual COVID-19 Local Response Initiative.

McConnell has drawn criticism from both the governors and the Democrats

for his comments to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.  Hewitt was

opposing providing more money to state and local governments.

Hewitt asked whether McConnell would support creating a bankruptcy

statute that states could use, especially with their underfunded pension 

programs

“I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,”

McConnell said. “It saves some cities. And there’s no good reason for it not to

be available. My guess is their first choice would be for the federal government

to borrow money from future generations to send it down to them now

so they don’t have to do that. That’s not something I’m going to be in favor of.”

The Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, called Meconnell's statement a 

"stupid idea".  He said that if you want to send a message to the world that 

the greatest nation ever, is in trouble, then start having the states declare 

bankruptcy.

In an email to the press, McConnell’s office labeled his remarks as for

“stopping blue state bailouts,” in which the Kentucky Republican said:

“There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out

state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”

Does McConnell really think that red states like his own Kentucky, won’t be

in a situation to need to declare bankruptcy?

Pelosi was dismissive of that position, telling the mayors and local officials

that she refers to the next legislation as “our heroes bill,” because the goal 

of state and local money is to keep the, “first responders employed”.

Democrats would pass such money in the House, “notwithstanding the

comments, springing from I don’t know what, from Mitch McConnell,” she said.

It was in his daily news conference, that California Gov. Gavin Newsom 

also criticized McConnell.  “His comments were offensive,” Newsom said. 

“If you care about democracy and innovation, you care about states. 

You care about cities.  I hope and expect he’ll take back his comments.

McConnell seldom takes back any comments.

Pelosi was speaking with those mayors by phone just off the House floor, where

her colleagues had approved nearly $500 billion in additional aid for small business, hospitals and coronavirus testing.

The bill followed two weeks of Pelosi negotiating with McConnell and

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over the $250 billion he requested

for a small business loan program created by Congress’ previous legislation.

But the Democrats also wanted more money for state and local governments

in that package, but of course, the Republicans refused.

Republicans have gone after Pelosi for holding up the business loan money to

tack on other items. Pelosi said the GOP was the one at fault for their waiting

to agree to the extra money for the hospitals and other money that ended

up in the bill, which was passed unanimously by the Senate Tuesday.

(As usual, the Republicans bellyache about the Dems. bills, then they pass them unanimously….?)

“I do not accept the fact that they are saying we could have done this two weeks ago,”

Pelosi told the mayors. “No, they wouldn’t. They only came to [support] it by the

time we came to agreement at midnight on Monday.”

As to McConnell’s comment against “… the federal government to borrow money

from future generations to send it down to them [the states] now.”  

The point is that under this president, Trump has already spent so much of our future

generations money, and he and the GOP have seriously increased our deficit 

Concerning the pandemic, at least the House Speaker wants to keep our

hospitals, first responders, and all of the states to be able to survive today’s tough times.

McConnell seems to forget that it’s times like these when the US government

is supposed to “come to the rescue”, as they did under FDR, and not to close the door and say, “you’re all on your own”.

Copyright G. Ater 2020