What Republicans Are
By 
I have more about Republicans making corporate immunity their top ask in COVID-19 relief negotiations:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Monday that he is willing to work with Democrats to pass another COVID-19 relief bill when his institution finally returns from an inexcusably long recess in May. But seasoned liberal observers would know that such announcements from him should offer as much apprehension as hope — and McConnell did not go against type.
His top priority isn’t addressing the myriad economic hardships facing most Americans, who have seen jobs evaporate, salaries cut, small businesses suffer, retirement accounts dwindle and may yet still take ill or die of the disease the government seemingly has no comprehensive plan to fight, but rather addressing what he called the “the lawsuit pandemic” by providing legal immunity to companies for lawsuits related to their actions during the pandemic.
[…]
The top Democratic priority in this round of negotiations it to secure aid to state and local governments that are besieged by a combination of plunging tax revenues and increased social welfare obligations. (It says something about the fundamental cruelty of the Republican conference that, in the last round of negotiations, they proudly denied aid desperately needed by Republican and Democratic-held statehouses alike, though state austerity measures would be a political disaster for President Donald Trump and incumbent Senate Republicans in an election year.)
Another top Democratic priority will be to secure funding for nationwide vote-for-mail, to prevent disasters like the recent election in Wisconsin in which Republican legislators and the conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court gave voters a choice between exposing themselves to a deadly virus or not voting in a state Supreme Court race (and the Democratic primary). The Democratic judicial candidate won, but the vote has been linked to 36 new coronavirus cases so far.
I’m beginning to think Republicans aren’t going to OUTFLANK Dems from the left.
I assume Republican elites are trying to square the political self-interest circle by convincing themselves that if businesses open it will save the economy. But they’re wrong — you can incentivize public accommodations to stay open but you can’t make customers show up. (And most local businesses are such low-margin propositions that it doesn’t really matter whether 20% or 50% of customers are willing to risk death to come back.) The Republican “take the punch” plan will just result in a lot more sickness and death and an economy that is still in much worse shape than in 2008.