Republicans in Murder-Suicide Pact With Country
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At this point, it’s pretty clear there’s going to be nothing like the stimulus the economy will need not to be in a historic depression for months, and the only question is how inadequate it would be. And that’s because Republicans are prioritizing their crackpot ideas over everything, including their own political fortunes:
Everyone, and I mean everyone, knows what is really happening: McConnell is trying to get more money for businesses while continuing to shortchange state and local governments. After all, “starve the beast” — forcing governments to cut services by depriving them of resources — has been Republican strategy for decades. This is just more of the same.
This reality leaves Democrats with no choice except to stand firm while they still have leverage. Bear in mind that McConnell could have the money he wants tomorrow if he were willing to meet them halfway. So far, however, he isn’t. Oh, and Trump personally has ruled out aid for the Postal Service.
At a basic level, then, anti-government ideologues are preventing us from responding adequately to the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. Their obstructionism will cause vast suffering, as crucial public services are curtailed. It will also compound the economic damage.
In the near future, we’ll see millions of unnecessary job losses as impoverished families cut back spending, as local governments lay off teachers and firefighters, as the post office, if it survives at all, becomes a shadow of its former self. And many of these job losses will probably persist even after the pandemic subsides.
Anyone expecting a V-shaped economic recovery, in which we quickly go back to where we were a few months ago, is likely to be sorely disappointed.
If there’s a silver lining to all this, it is that the people sabotaging our response to Covid-19 economics may also be sabotaging their own political future. Trump is, after all, counting on rapid economic recovery to erase public memories of his disastrous handling of the pandemic itself. Yet he and his allies in the Senate are making such a recovery much less likely.
As I’ve written before and undoubtedly will have to again, the purely venal Republican Party that people who think they are sophisticated about politics but aren’t imagine exists would be much better than the actually existing one.