Politics Refusal by Pelosi to Consider Universal Cash Payments in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic 'Maddening

Well usually that saying is used when someones saying that kettles black but im not, so I guess I just thought you use of the expression was different than I had seen it. Or I misunderstood you.

 

No, that wasn't my intent...maybe could/should have used a different term but what I meant was yes, both side are equally to blame and are equally dysfunctional.

 

Dems are causing irreparable harm to American's lives and our nation's security by insisting that the bulk of aid be spent on pet projects having nothing to do with preventing the spread of the coronavirus or saving lives. A 1 trillion dollar graft-ridden infrastructure bill, a slimy theft of billions from emergency funding to speed up your movie downloads (thanks Peter Defazio), and they are openly bragging that "this" (Americans needing them to do their job to protect them) is their opportunity to push their personal political agendas, make their billionaire donors richer, and affect the 2020 elections.

Truly, no lower form of life exists.

 

Except I don't side with the pots or the kettles.

I'm really more of a skillet.

 

DEMS KILLING YOUR GRANDPARENTS BECAUSE THEY CAN.

Mark Levin on House Dems' coronavirus plan: 'People are sick and dying and Pelosi is playing games'
By Yael Halon | Fox News

"Life, Liberty & Levin" host Mark Levin accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., of "exploiting this crisis to advance her radical agenda," after she announced Sunday that Democrats would be introducing their own stimulus bill to address the ongoing economic collapse amid the coronavirus -- all while the Republican-controlled Senate considered its own legislation.

"1. Pelosi’s poisonous politics feeds the Wuhan virus. She’s exploiting this crisis to advance her radical agenda. She must be exposed and condemned for the diabolical huckster that she is," Levin wrote on Twitter, referencing the city in China where the virus originated.

"2. People are sick and dying and Pelosi is playing games. Apparently the TRILLIONS the Republicans want to spend isn’t enough," he added. "Sickening."

Pelosi's announcement, which came as the House returned from its weeklong recess, frustrated many Senate Republicans who have worked through their planned recess this week to craft the urgent economic-relief legislation.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicated an agreement was within reach. But, faced with mounting opposition from Democrats who call the package insufficient, the Senate on Sunday evening failed to move forward with considering the Republicans' "Phase Three" bill.

Pelosi reportedly was seeking a "laundry list" of items to be included in the legislation, including wiping out up to $10,000 in student loan debt per person and securing election-security funding.

"It's on the Senate side now because that's their deadline for a vote, but we'll be introducing our own bill and hopefully it'll be compatible with what they discussed on the Senate," Pelosi told reporters early Sunday.

 

Now, that's really over the top.
Republicans have been sitting around with their thumbs up their asses thinking of ways to praise Trump for being incredibly inept and still find time to blame it all on the Democrats. Talk about balls.

 

lol...cast iron?

 

Pelosi's coronavirus stimulus includes return of 'Obamaphones,' other unrelated items, GOP says

By Gregg Re | Fox News

Nancy Pelosi's 'political games' will damage the country: Kevin McCarthy

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced her own emergency coronavirus stimulus bill on Monday, leading furious Republicans to argue that much of the proposal contained a progressive wishlist seemingly unrelated to the crisis -- including one provision that amounts to a resurrection of the notorious "Obamaphone" program, GOP officials said.

The bill proposed by Pelosi, D-Calif., additionally seeks to eliminate debt held by the U.S. Postal Service, require same-day voter registration, pay off $10,000 in student debt per person, mandate that airlines reduce their overall carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050, and force federal agencies to explain to Congress how they are increasing their usage of "minority banks."

And, the legislation would provide for the automatic extension of nonimmigrant visas and restrict colleges from providing information about citizenship status.

"People are dying and all Nancy Pelosi and Democrats can focus on is ripping off the American taxpayer to help pay for their liberal wish list of government handouts," National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesman Michael McAdams said in a statement.

"As long as the White House keeps the checkbook open, Democrats will keep taking things," a senior Senate GOP leadership source told Fox News late Monday.

The NRCC went on to accuse Pelosi of cramming the bill "full of unrelated liberal goodies, including a return of the 'Obamaphone.'" Pelosi, the NRCC said, wants $1 billion "to build on program expanded by President Obama that provides discounted phone service for low-income consumers."

That was an apparent reference to Title III, Section 301 of Pelosi's bill, which allocates $1 billion and calls for federal authorities to immediately expand the "emergency lifeline broadband benefit" for every household that contains at least one "qualifying low-income consumer." The bill refers to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to define the broadband benefit.

Title 47, Section 8.1(b) of the CFR defines "broadband internet access service" as including cell phones, saying it is any "mass-market retail service by wire or radio that provides the capability to transmit data to and receive data from all or substantially all internet endpoints, including any capabilities that are incidental to and enable the operation of the communications service."

A 2017 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) claimed that the "Obamaphone" program, which gave cell phones to poor people under the broadband benefit, stashed $9 billion in private bank accounts and was "rife with fraud," the Washington Times reported at the time.

The GAO report found that about 10.6 million people have an Obamaphone, but 36 percent of them may not qualify. The audit also concluded that more than 5,500 people were found to be enrolled for two phones, while the program was paying for about 6,400 phones for persons the government has listed as dead, the paper reported.

On the Senate floor Monday evening, Republican senators lined up to hammer what they described as Pelosi's pork, and her derailment of their stimulus proposal.

Senate Republicans and Democrats had a tentative agreement on a bill before Pelosi, arriving back to Capitol Hill from recess, suddenly said she would introduce her own legislation.

"Today, 102 Americans died while the Democrats blocked consideration of this bill," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said at one point. "One Texan died while this chamber decided not to show up for work and do their job."

Cruz also hit Democrats for seeking to bail out the U.S. Postal Service, which hasn't suggested it will terminate any employees.

"One of the reasons the Democrats think they will get away with this is they expect the media to be utterly complicit," Cruz added, noting that The New York Times conspicuously changed its headline three times Sunday evening to describe how Democrats had killed Republicans' stimulus bill.

The Times' first headline, "Democrats Block Action on $1.8 Trillion Stimulus," eventually became, "Partisan Divide Threatens Deal on Rescue Bill."

Leaving the GOP stimulus legislation in limbo once more, the Senate stalled over the package Monday afternoon on a 49-46 vote. It needed 60 votes to advance.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., then stormed to the floor to accuse Democrats of "mindless obstruction" that could drag out any action for days. He said Democrats' list of demands keeps getting "longer and longer."

After 7 p.m. ET, after hours of additional argument, McConnell announced, “We’ll not be having any votes tonight.” He filed cloture again to halt debate on the effort to start debate on the “shell” bill.

By the book, the new cloture petition won’t “ripen” for a vote until Wednesday. Lawmakers must allow for an “intervening day"; Tuesday is the intervening day -- but the Senate could technically then meet at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday, and vote within an hour, given that time is of the essence.

They would need 60 yeas just to vault the procedural hurdle and formally start debate later in the week.

“Hope springs eternal," McConnell told Fox News as he left the floor, concerning whether a deal could be reached. “As you know, the talks continue no matter where people are physically located.”

Democrats argued the more-than $1 trillion package did too much for large corporations and not enough for workers, and inaccurately suggested that the treasury secretary would have unilateral control over a massive "slush fund."

Republicans accused them of playing politics and using the crisis as leverage to try and jam through unrelated political "wish list" items concerning climate change and more.

“The country is burning, and your side wants to play political games,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., said shortly before the vote. “It is time to get this done. The American people expect us to act, they need action. We need to get this done for the American people.”

Thune slammed Democrats, specifically moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who just moments earlier said the bill was “weighted toward the Wall Street corporation side.”

“Here we are dilly-dallying around,” Thune said. “This bill is about workers, families, people out there hurting economically—we’re in a position to do something about it and it is high time that we did.”

Moderate Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, blasted Democrats as “disgraceful” for delaying further work on the legislation.

Pelosi, meanwhile, assailed Trump's idea and fluctuating response to the crisis.

At the Capitol, the virus continued to strike close. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who announced he tested positive for coronavirus, is now among five senators under self-quarantine. Several other lawmakers have cycled in and out of isolation. And the husband of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is in a hospital with pneumonia after testing positive, she said Monday.

President Trump warns of economic impact of coronavirus crisis as stimulus bill falters in Senate

 

I wonder if conservatives here will implore Republicans to "pass it quickly, stop holding up money that people need."

 

Its a weird one for me as a conservative... I hate the idea of bailing out billion dollar companies (or used to be), and their CEO’s. Im not really into the idea of just sending everyone a check either, but this is obviously an emergency type situation. Its something that is urgent too. My personal stance is that, people are in crisis right now, they’re in fear, they have families, through no fault of their own their livelihood was swept away. They need help, government, churches, communities, we all have to figure out how to do this together. I believe the politicians do need to hurry up and help people. Its really got me frustrated the more I read the crap of oh the dems wanted to put this stuff in and the repubs wanted to do this stuff, all for pet projects and political agenda’s. I honestly have a hard time understanding anyone who’s looking at our government officials and thinks or says oh they’re looking out for us. They’re putting party, they’re putting politics, in front of people, not just oh Country over party, no right now People seem on the bottom of the list.
Should be Medical / Health services and getting states and medical personnel what they need. Followed by Individuals and whatever way they want to go about helping them out, then Small businesses who simply wont ever open again if they arent helped. Then way on down the line, are the United Airlines (of the world) and the two parties and their political agenda’s.

The more I watch, read and listen the last few days the more I think we need to vote like 3/4ths of these people out of office.

 

3/4ths? How about 10/10ths?

 

Fox News, 'nuff said.

 

Yup,

read://https_www.politico.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fnews%2F2020%2F03%2F23%2Fhouse-democrats-stimulus-senate-coronavirus-145388


How the House Democrats' stimulus plan compares to the Senate's
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled her bill, offering some distinct contrasts to the GOP version in the Senate.

Bigger cash payments to Americans
Democrats want to further plump the direct payments that would go out to Americans under the bill, proposing $1,500 per person, instead of the $1,200 on the table under the Senate measure laid out Sunday. Unlike the latest plan from Senate Republicans, however, higher earners would have to pay back part or all of the assistance over three years if their taxable income is $75,000 or more for a single filer or $150,000 or more for couples filing jointly. The money would be available to anyone with a tax ID number, and to retirees and people who are unemployed, rather than just to people who file taxes for 2019 or get Social Security.

More help to hospitals
Health care providers and community health centers would receive about $150 billion, while hospitals would get an additional $80 billion in low-interest loans. The proposal is more in line with industry requests, compared to the $75 billion Senate Republicans have offered. The House bill would also waive treatment costs, abandon certain barriers to accessing medicines and provide safety protections for health workers.

Expanding unemployment, paid sick leave
The unemployed would get an extra $600 per week on top of state or federal benefits in order to replace 100 percent of lost wages. The measure would also extend paid sick leave benefits to cover individuals, such as health care workers and first responders, who were cut out of Congress’ second coronavirus response.

Emergency funding for federal agencies
House Democrats want to go much bigger in sending emergency money to federal agencies, proposing hundreds of billions more than the $242 billion Senate Republicans have pitched, according to a Democratic aide. The White House, meanwhile, has made a narrowly tailored request for $46 billion.

‘Green’ rules for airlines
If airlines are going to get billions of dollars in loans under the bill, Democrats saythey need to cut their carbon emissions in half by 2050.The House’s measure would also kick in $1 billion to help develop sustainable fuels for planes and create a program for the government to buy less-efficient aircraft, à la “cash-for-clunkers.”

Tax plans from different planets
The two stimulus drafts emerging from both chambers present markedly different stimulus tax plans, with House Democrats omitting the payroll tax suspension included in the Senate GOP bill. The Democratic plan would also expand health insurance premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act and beef up the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit and the Dependent Care Credit.

Taxpayers could make early withdrawals from their retirement funds without having to pay the usual 10 percent penalty during the coronavirus crisis, and required minimum withdrawals would be suspended for 2020. Health insurance premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act would be expanded.

Laying on the lobbying restrictions
The House bill goes much further than the Senate measure when it comes to limiting executive pay and stock buybacks, as well as imposing lobbying restrictions. For example, the House package would bar such corporations from lobbying the federal government — a move sure to arouse anger on K Street among Democratic and Republican lobbyists alike.

Business tax relief
Companies would get credits against payroll taxes for giving employees any kind of sick or family medical leave, not just for coronavirus-related reasons.

Businesses would get to deduct losses from this year, last year and 2018 from their taxes for any of the last five years. The Senate bill includes a similar “carry back” provision. The House did not include provisions allowing faster write-offs for restaurant and retail business investments or bigger deductions for business interest, both of which are in the Senate bill.

Aid for airlines
Airlines would receive about $40 billion in grants through the House package, as well as up to $21 billion for unsecured loans and loan guarantees for a total of $61 billion in aid. Senate Republicans have proposed $58 billion in loans and guarantees, plus a holiday from paying fuel tax.

Smaller increase for the Pentagon
House Democrats would give the Defense Department an $8 billion emergency boost, including $500 million for purchases made under the Defense Production Act. The Senate GOP bill would provide the Pentagon with a $10 billion hike.

Extra aid for small businesses
Democrats are pitching $500 billion in grants and interest-free loans to small businesses, including $300 billion in forgivable loans to cover short-term payroll costs. That compares to $300 billion in loans for small businesses in the Senate bill.

Outlawing internet cutoffs
While hundreds of internet providers have already promised they will not cut off service to households and small businesses while the coronavirus rages, the bill would ensure it’s illegal to do so.

Further action from the Fed
Consumer debt payments would be suspended and the Federal Reserve would have to establish a program to reimburse creditors for lost revenue. The central bank would also have to support state and local bond markets, in addition to providing direct loans to small businesses.

Flush with food assistance
The bill includes an extra $450 million boost to food banks, as well as whatever funds are “necessary” to account for more people in need of food stamps. Senate Republicans had proposed about $15.6 billion in food stamp assistance.

Rewarding nonprofits
Hospitals would qualify for tax credits for charity care they provide and for creating or expanding facilities to handle the coronavirus patient load. Governmental employers, including public universities, would get tax credits for mandated worker leave due to the coronavirus.

Penalizing price-gougers
The FTC and top lawyers at the state level wouldget more power to go after people and companies that price-gouge during the pandemic.

Keeping utilities on
Besides spending $1.5 billion to help low-income households pay water bills, the House legislation would ban utility providers from cutting off service during the crisis.

Doubling up on education cash
Democrats are calling for $60 billion in emergency assistance to go out for education initiatives, about three times the amount the Senate bill contains. That total includes $30 billion to help K-12 schools, as well as $10 billion for colleges and universities.

Saving the T-band for first responders
By doing away with a mandate that the FCC sell off the T-band, the plan Democrats are pushing would make winners out of first responders in the ongoing fight over auctioning the spectrum they use for emergency communications.

 

There's a big con to the Republican Senate plan. They want to give $500 Billion to Mnuchin and Trump with zero oversight. Yep, Trump would have the ultimate oversight saying who would get help and how much. They wouldn't even have to tell where the money went for 6 months. Who wants to give money to Trump to give to companies that help him get his poll numbers up?

 

Yeah, I guess that's why all the debating/negotiating that's going on. In a way I can understand some people's impatience but this bill needs to be structured logically.

 

So Im not sure where he got the info but my dad said last night that the Houses bill had all this stuff that was just democrat political agenda stuff, he basically thought the house bill and the senate bill were full of way too much of people’s agenda’s. I havent read em so I dont know.

 

well, you know how it goes. The Dems have their "agenda" and the Reps have theirs...lol