December 28, 2020. The coronavirus relief bill that cleared Congress on December 21, 2020 was a $900 billion
blockbuster. Before the votes were taken, the members of Congress were given only two hours to read its 5,593 pages. They’re fast readers, of course.
The title of the bill is misleading. The Covid virus is not the problem. The lockdowns and other measures taken to deal with Covid were, and still are, the problem. They are devastating mistakes. The death rate of Covid-19 is lower than that of the SARS, H1N1 influenza in 2009, for which no lockdowns were imposed. Killing the economy was unnecessary and extremely harmful.
This bill and its predecessor attempt to relieve the unforgivable pain caused by the state lockdowns. But Congress felt entitled to throw the kitchen sink into the bill as well, all adding significantly to the nation’s debt.
The main impetus for this bill was the extra $300 a week for eleven weeks to those receiving state unemployment benefits. States that locked down the hardest, NJ, CA, IL & NY, having higher unemployment, are rewarded for their misguided policies with larger federal payments, thank you very much.
The $300-a-week unemployment benefits will cost about $200 billion. For the other $700 billion, I learned about most of the provisions from regular news outlets. The expenses of the first three are on-going:
Additional weeks of unemployment insurance for self-employed and gig economy workers (meaning those who work temporary jobs as independent contractors or freelancers, typically in the service sector), There’s an extra benefit of $100 a week for people who are both self-employed and have salaried jobs.
Another round of direct payment checks: $600 for those making up to $75,000 a year and $1,200 for couples making up to $150,000 a year, plus $600 payment for each dependent child. This is half the amount provided by the Cares Act last March. But unlike that bill, these payments also go to illegal immigrants married to legal immigrants.
$600 stimulus checks for family members of illegal aliens. These are retroactive; they also receive the previous $1,200 given out in the March bill, making $1,800 in all.
There follows specific amounts for domestic needs:
$284 billion for first- and second- loans through the Paycheck Protection Program.
$13 billion for farmers and ranchers affected by the pandemic.
$25 billion in rental assistance to help pay for past-due and future rent payments and utility bills.
Expansion of the program to include nonprofits and local news organizations. Plus an additional $20 billion of grants for businesses in low-income communities.
$15 billion loans for live entertainment venues, cultural institutions, and independent movie theaters, including churches.
$28 billion for the purchase and distribution of additional vaccines.
$22 billion to the states for Covid testing, tracing, and mitigation programs.
Over $3 billion for the Strategic National Stockpile of protective equipment and other supplies needed for responding to the pandemic.
$4 billion for substance abuse programs. Additional funding for mental health services, health-care providers, and additional research into Cover-19.
$82 billion for schools, of which about $54 billion will go to K-12 schools. Many of the schools are closed, but the teachers union can always use the cash for congressional campaign contributions.
$1.7 billion for historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, and other minorities.
$10 billion for child care services.
$15 billion for airlines to pay some of the 32,000 U.S. airline workers who were furloughed after a six-month $25 billion bailout from the March bill ran out at the end of September.
$14 billion for mass transit programs.
$10 billion “more” for state highways.
$1 billion for money-losing Amtrak – a gift to the railroad-worker unions and rail equipment contractors.
$7 billion in broadband funding.
$300 million for rural broadband.
$250 million for telehealth.
$2 billion to replace foreign manufactured broadband equipment that poses national security threats.
$14 million for the Kennedy Center (on top of the $26 million it received from the previous relief bill). The building is closed, but Congress wants the curtain ready to rise immediately after reopening. After all, the Washington elite must be suitably entertained.
Because of lobbying by Jerry Seinfeld, money is supplied for comedy clubs. No help for restaurants and bars, however.
$1 billion for two new Smithsonian museums: the American Women’s History Museum and the National Museum of the American Latino.
A 64-page section devoted to Horseracing Integrity and Safety.
Funds for studying the 1908 Springfield, Illinois race riot.
The specific amounts for domestic purposes above total $572 billion.
Here, now, are lesser amounts for the rest of the world:
$4 billion for vaccination programs abroad.
$700 million to Sudan.
$500 million for Jordan’s defense.
$74.8 million for a Caribbean Basic Security Initiative.
$33 million to support democracy in Venezuela.
$169 million for Vietnam.
$1.3 billion for Egypt.
$15 million to repair a military cutter in Sri Lanka.
$453 million for the Ukraine, source of several million for the forlorn Biden family.
$505 million to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama to address key factors that contribute to the migration of unaccompanied, undocumented minors to the U.S.
$461 million to Colombia “for programs related to counter narcotics and human rights.”
$150 million to Jordan for enhanced border security.
$100 million to Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman for enhanced border security.
$15 million for democracy programs and $10 million for gender programs in Pakistan.
Millions for Georgia, part of the old Soviet Union.
Money for India and other nations, invasive species mitigation, and water management on the Tibetan plateau.
The specific amounts above for interests abroad total $10 billion, making the sum of both domestic and foreign interests $582 billion. (This is short of $700 billion. I do not know all of the bill’s provisions.)
Note how specific these measures are. This would be impossible, of course, except that the members of Congress know everything there is to know about everything.
The Senate vote was 92-to-6. The six who opposed were Republicans Marsha Blackburn, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Rick Scott, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson. The other Republicans, voting in favor of the gargantuan bill, have assured their constituents that – oh yes – they scrutinize every single dollar of federal expenditures.
If Congress backed off, limited House and Senate members to one term each, abolished the Civil Service, abolished the Federal Reserve Bank, stopped collecting statistics, stopped funding universities and schools, sold the land it owns but doesn’t use, applied a low, flat income tax, and greatly reduced the size of the federal government, most of these needs would be met, and met far better, by private citizens who care.
I was stirred by Rand Paul’s twelve-minute Senate speech on December 22 about free money for everyone. I intended to provide you the website in this column so you could hear it. But a few days later, Google or other social media giant may have considered it threatening and removed it. I recommend https://www.citizenfreepress.com as an excellent source of news.
