Comments by "wily wascal" (@wilywascal2024) on "McConnell calls out Biden's vaccine timeline after ignoring Trump's" video.
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Elmer Fudd's always trying to convince me he just wants unity.
What he really means is that he wants to eat me.
Unity and compromise is a two-way street that only works if both parties operate in good faith. Republicans have a long history of failing to do that--or even trying. Recent history since Biden won the election shows no indication of them changing their divisive, destructive words, attitudes, obstruction and other acts. Tyrant Trump incited a terrorist insurrection against the nation's Capitol to overthrow an election, endangering his VP and members of Congress, sat by and gleefully reveled in watching it happen for hours, ignoring desperate pleas for help, and only a very few Republican were willing to speak out, impeach him, convict him, and prevent him from holding public office again? That's not loyal opposition--that's a dangerous terrorist political cult of fascists.
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Elmer Fudd's always trying to convince me he just wants unity.
What he really means is that he wants to eat me.
Unity and compromise is a two-way street that only works if both parties operate in good faith. Republicans have a long history of failing to do that--or even trying. Recent history since Biden won the election shows no indication of them changing their divisive, destructive words, attitudes, obstruction and other acts. Tyrant Trump incited a terrorist insurrection against the nation's Capitol to overthrow an election, endangering his VP and members of Congress, sat by and gleefully reveled in watching it happen for hours, ignoring desperate pleas for help, and only a very few Republican were willing to speak out, impeach him, convict him, and prevent him from holding public office again? That's not loyal opposition--that's a dangerous terrorist political cult of fascists.
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@pjmvdbroek ~ You don't get denialism without nihilism. As life-long conservative Bill Kristol astutely pointed our just recently in a tweet, the Republican party has embraced nihilism. Republicans still labeling COVID-19 a "hoax;" Republicans still refusing to wear masks or social distance after over half-a-million American fatalities from COVID-19; Congressional Republicans obstructing a COVID-19 stimulus bill certain to pass just to delay vital and urgently needed relief to Americans desperate for help; not one Congressional Republican in either chamber voting for the badly needed stimulus bill; Republican governors dropping mask mandates and all restrictions on businesses, heedless of rising case counts in their states and deadly new variants of the virus; and Republican leaders continuing to push the Big Lie that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen without evidence and in disregard of plentiful evidence and facts to the contrary, even AFTER their Big Lie incited a terrorist attack by a mindless Republican mob against the nation's Capitol in insurrection against the government, attempting to overturn a legitimate election, sieging, storming, sizing, sacking, defiling, defacing and disgracing America's citadel of, and temple to, democracy--these are all prime examples of nihilism.
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@noKAREforDAfakeKARENZ ~ If I were to start spewing out nonsense on a subject about which I knew little, and someone told me to get a clue, would not take it personally, nor would I consider it "so offensive," or claim that the other person was acting like "angry hyenas." Your words were what were being taken exception to, not you personally. The content of your comment was found to be uninformed and misinformed, somewhat detached from the reality, and seemingly naïve about our government and the passage of legislation, which was why the admonishment given to get a clue. Your reply to me exhibits more of those same traits, unfortunately, plus unwarranted fear-mongering. There is widespread agreement among economists--both conservative and liberal--that this stimulus package is precisely the kind of investment needed in our economy; that without it we would ultimately suffer greater federal debt and subsequently a greater tax burden, and a slow economic recovery, hurting millions of lower-class Americans. If you're truly for the poor and the working lower-middle class folks like me (a category to which I also belong), then you should be supporting the stimulus bill passed, not denigrating it:
-- The stimulus bill will reduce poverty by a third, lifting nearly 13 million Americans out of it, according to an analysis by Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy.
-- While providing an array of benefits to the middle class, it is also a poverty-fighting initiative of potentially historic proportions, delivering more immediate cash assistance to families at the bottom of the income scale than any federal legislation since at least the New Deal.
-- Mr. Biden’s antipoverty efforts, which researchers say will lift nearly six million children out of poverty, came to be part of the package because families that earn in the bottom third of the income distribution, or at least of the wage distribution, have been disproportionately hurt by the pandemic.
-- The package is projected to deliver thousands of dollars in benefits to families of all races, potentially neutralizing a long history of white voters souring on spending they perceive to be targeted to racial minorities.
Major buckets
Unemployment benefits:
The package extends the existing $300 weekly unemployment benefit through Sept. 6, as well as provides a tax break on $10,000 in unemployment benefits.
Stimulus checks:
The bill would send $1,400 stimulus checks on top of the $600 payments issued through the stimulus bill passed in December. Roughly $400 billion of the package would go toward another round of checks.
Child tax credit:
Under the legislation, most Americans would receive $3,000 a year for each child ages 6 to 17, and $3,600 for each child under 6.
The provision in the bill would last one year and be sent via direct deposit on a “periodic” basis. It is a major expansion of the existing child tax credit, which provides $2,000 a year for children from birth through age 16.
The more regular payments are intended to help offset costs families face day-to-day, instead of sending families one annual payment.
Aid to state and local governments:
The package designates $350 billion for states, cities, tribal governments and U.S. territories. Facing deep budget shortfalls, state and local governments have shed 1.3 million jobs since the pandemic began last year — a loss of more than 1 in 20 government jobs. While tax revenue grew in some states last year, the majority — at least 26 states — were hit with declines, while facing significant increased expenditures due to COVID-19.
Pandemic response
Tens of billions of dollars will fund coronavirus testing and contact tracing; increasing the size of the public health workforce and funding vaccine distribution and supply chains.
Biden said there will be enough coronavirus vaccine doses for “every adult in America” by the end of May — a two-month acceleration of his previous projection of July.
Housing assistance
The bill sets aside more than $20 billion in emergency rental assistance and other relief for the homeless.
Another $10 billion goes to mortgage and homeownership assistance.
School support
The bill sets aside almost $130 billion to help K-12 schools reopen. That money would go to improving ventilation systems, reducing class sizes, buying personal protective equipment and implementing social distancing.
Colleges and other higher-education institutions would receive almost $40 billion. That money could help support financial aid grants to prevent hunger, homelessness or other challenges for students during the pandemic.
Additional funds would go to child-care providers through the Child Care and Development Block Grant program. The bill also sets aside $1 billion for the Head Start program, which provides early-childhood education, health and nutrition services to low-income children and families.
Other provisions
The bill provides $510 million for the FEMA Emergency Food and Shelter Program. That money would support homeless services providers for overnight shelter, meals, one month’s rent and mortgage assistance, and one month’s utility payments.
It expands the Employee Retention Tax Credit for start-up companies and other businesses hit by the pandemic.
The bill also increases the value of the federal COBRA health insurance program from 85 percent to 100 percent.
The bill adds a $10 billion infrastructure program to help local governments continue crucial capital projects.
The bill makes all coronavirus-related student loan relief tax-free.
The bill increases the total amount of Amtrak relief funding by $200 million.
For education funding, the bill sets aside $1.25 billion for summer enrichment; $1.25 billion for after-school programs and $3 billion for education technology.
The Senate bill also adds $8.5 billion in funds for the Provider Relief Program to assist rural health care providers.
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