Biden Promises Another Round of Stimulus Checks

By Yuval Rosenberg

Too Little, Too Late? Covid Relief Bill Meets
Its Critics

As expected, the House and Senate both passed the $900 billion
coronavirus relief package and a $1.4 trillion catchall spending
bill on Monday night.

The House approved the measures by a 359-53 vote. The Senate
tally was 92-6, with six Republicans voting against the bill:
Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of
Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Scott
of Florida.

President Trump signed a stopgap spending bill passed by
Congress to keep the government open until December 28, the White
House
said. The stopgap allows time for the paperwork on
the massive package approved by Congress on Monday night to be
processed and sent to the White House for Trump to sign into
law.

At nearly 5,593 pages, the bill is believed to be the longest
ever passed by Congress, and the Covid relief measure is the second
largest emergency spending package ever, behind only the Cares Act
passed in March. You can read more about the behind-the-scenes
process that led to the stimulus deal finally getting done at

The New York Times,
The Washington Post or
Politico.

In all, the federal response to the pandemic now totals nearly
$4 trillion, Politico
notes — and still more may be needed, as lawmakers
in both parties acknowledged that the latest legislation was far
from perfect and some economists warn that it may have been too
little or come too late to prevent a double-dip recession.

“The legislation was passed too late, is too limited, and
expires too soon to offset the adverse economic impact caused by
the intensification of the pandemic and the resulting pullback by
the public and lockdowns around the economy in the current
quarter,”
wrote Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at
consulting firm RSM. “As a result, the aid package is not a
stimulus bill, it is a rescue bill, and the economy will likely
require another round of aid as early as next year.”

The process was ridiculous: More than a few lawmakers in
both parties expressed frustration with the process —
and the fact that after months of delay they were given just hours
to consider a massive piece of legislation. "Members of Congress
have not read this bill. It's over 5000 pages, arrived at 2pm
today, and we are told to expect a vote on it in 2 hours,” wrote
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). “This isn't governance. It's
hostage-taking."

And Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott said in a statement:
“Early this afternoon, we were finally provided the text of the
combined $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill and $900 billion COVID
relief bill. It is almost 5,600 pages long and we’re expected to
vote on it tonight. Who in their right mind thinks that this is a
responsible way of governing?”

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible
Federal Budget
said that the overall process took far too long:
“We should have funded the government before the beginning of the
fiscal year on October 1, and we should have passed economic relief
before that. The time wasted on political bickering cost jobs and
it may have cost lives.”

She also said that it was unfortunate that lawmakers had to add
“extraneous measures like wasteful tax extenders, clean energy tax
credits, and a 100 percent tax deduction for business meals” to get
a deal done: “While a crisis like this is exactly the right time
for the government to borrow, these unnecessary political pet
projects waste vital emergency funds and could undermine support
for crisis response efforts in the future.”

Bloomberg’s Editorial Board
summed it up neatly: “From start to finish, this
effort has followed every rubric of how not to run a government. …
The deal is a lot better than nothing. It will do for now. But
Congress really ought to conduct its affairs with some small
semblance of competence — and at the earliest opportunity, the
Biden administration needs to look afresh at further relief
measures."

What about the deficit? Some Republicans also objected to
the deficit-increasing effects of the legislation, even as other
budget analysts have said that the U.S. can and should borrow now
to address the coronavirus crisis.

Scott complained that “in classic Washington style, vital
programs are being attached to an omnibus spending bill that
mortgages our children and grandchildren’s futures without even
giving members a chance to read it. We are not spending money we
have in the bank or anticipate we will collect in taxes. Washington
doesn’t seem to understand that new spending today will be paid for
by increased federal debt and result in a tax increase on families
down the road.”

Biden: We're Going to Need More Stimulus Soon

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday praised Congress for
passing the relief bill, but he said the package is “far from
perfect” and reiterated that he sees it as just a “down payment” on
an additional aid package he wants to pass after he takes
office.

“We have a lot more work to do. Early next year I will put
before the Congress my plans for what comes next,” he said. “We
will need more help to fully distribute the vaccine. We need more
testing in order to reopen our schools. We need more funding to
help firefighters and police, many of whom are being laid off. The
same with nurses risking their lives on the frontlines. The same
for the millions of families hurting and unable to put food on the
table or pay rent or a mortgage.”

Asked by a reporter if he would seek to provide a third
round of direct payments, Biden said yes, but that the amount would
be “a negotiating issue.”

Congressional leaders have said they expect to consider
another Covid relief bill early next year. “I would hope that as we
see the need for what we have done in this nearly $900 billion
legislation that we’ll vote on today, that everyone understands
it’s a first step,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said on the House
floor Monday.

Biden said that American families suffering the hardships
caused by the virus — including Republicans — will push their
representatives in Congress to work with him to provide more
help.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) indicated
Monday that he will continue to press for liability protections for
businesses, hospitals and schools. "I think liability relief is
really important,” McConnell
told Fox News on Monday. “And if there is another
coronavirus relief bill after the first year of the year, I'm going
to insist that liability protection for these universities and
healthcare providers is a part of it.”

Airlines Get $15 Billion in Aid — or $500,000 for Each Rehired
Worker

The new Covid-19 relief package will give U.S. airlines $15
billion, with the money intended to be used to bring about 32,000
workers back onto payrolls.

But the airline business is in terrible shape thanks to the
virus, with traffic down by two-thirds, and the industry doesn’t
see it coming back any time soon, which means many of those rehired
workers could lose their jobs again, perhaps as soon as March.

“That’s right: The American taxpayer is putting up almost
$500,000 for each airline worker to have three months worth of
employment,”
says Bloomberg’s Joe Nocera in an op-ed piece
Tuesday.

The major players in the airline industry seem to have enough
capital to weather the downturn on their own, Nocera says: “United
Airlines Holdings Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc., which laid
off the vast majority of those 32,000 employees, are both burning
between $25 million and $30 million in cash a day — but each has
more than $15 billion in liquidity.”

The remarkable level of support for a relatively small
group of multi-billion-dollar companies may have something to do
with their political influence in Washington, Nocera says, not
least their ability to hire lobbyists.

Number of the Day: 3 Million

We all know 2020 has been a horrible year. It’s also the
deadliest in U.S. history, with deaths expected to top 3 million
for the first time ever.

“Final mortality data for this year will not be available
for months. But preliminary numbers suggest that the United States
is on track to see more than 3.2 million deaths this year, or at
least 400,000 more than in 2019,” Mike Stobbe of the Associated
Press
reports. “U.S. deaths increase most years, so some
annual rise in fatalities is expected. But the 2020 numbers amount
to a jump of about 15%, and could go higher once all the deaths
from this month are counted.” That’s the largest year-over-year
jump since 1918, when deaths rose 46% as World War I and the flu
pandemic took hundreds of thousands of lives.

Congress Plans Post-Christmas Session to Try to Override Trump
Veto

President Trump has announced that he plans to veto the $741
billion National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress passed
with veto-proof majorities earlier this month.

The annual bill, which has passed in each of the past 59 years,
defines spending levels and key policies for the Department of
Defense. Trump has criticized this year’s version on numerous
counts, including its failure to repeal legal protections for tech
firms and its requirement that the names of Confederate leaders be
removed from military bases.

Politico’s Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman
reported Tuesday that the president is showing no
signs of changing his mind. “Aides and congressional allies have
made it clear to Trump that his veto is likely to be overridden,
and have tried to get him to back off, but he does not at all
appear moved by their pleas,” they wrote.

In response, Congress has drawn up plans to reconvene between
Christmas and New Year’s. If Trump follows through on his threat —
which he must do by Wednesday — the House will return to Washington
for a session on December 28 to override the veto. While the margin
in favor of an override looks safe, there is some uncertainty, with
some Republicans who voted for the bill the first time around
saying they would not vote to override a Trump veto.

McConnell announced Tuesday that, while he hopes the president
does not veto the bill, the Senate would be in session on December
29 to “process” the House override should he do so.

Facing a noon deadline on January 3 to complete the override,
the Senate could face procedural hurdles, according to The Hill’s
Jordain Carney. Trump supporters could try to drag the process out
by requiring a cloture vote of 60 senators. Majority Whip Sen. John
Thune (R-SD) said the process could take a few days. "It will take
more than one day if we have objections and I think we probably
will. So the question is, if the House, if they override it, then
... we'll have to set it up, and it may take a few days to do
that," Thune
said.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said he would try to slow the process
down, due in part to a provision that limits the president’s
ability to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. “I very much am
opposed to the Afghan war, and I’ve told them I’ll come back to try
to prevent them from easily overriding the president’s veto,” Paul
said Monday.

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