Taking it coming and going

It's not enough that the fed can print trillions of dollars and just hand it over to the banks. That insulting little $1200 scrap you thought you were getting in return for letting them do that, yeah well the bank can take that too.

This week, the $1,200 CARES Act payments Congress approved in response to the coronavirus crisis will begin to appear in Americans’ bank accounts. The funds will be wired to eligible recipients who previously authorized the IRS to post their refunds (or Social Security payments) through direct deposit. This will speed relief far more quickly than having the IRS mail a check, which could take up to five months.

But the money may not make it into the hands of those who need it to pay bills, buy food, or just survive amid mass unemployment and widespread suffering. Individuals might first have to fend off their own bank, which has just been given the power to seize the $1,200 payment and use it to pay off outstanding debt.

Do we know how profoundly fucked we are? Has it even begun to sink in a little bit?

I really don't think it has.  This week, the news is still trying to get you to focus your hopes on the "Phase 4" relief bill.  Ooh maybe they'll finally get it right this time!  If there even is a  Phase 4, they definitely will not get it right. All of this is just play acting.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Monday that they won’t agree to the Trump administration’s insistence on more money for small business loans unless their demands are met for additional funding for hospitals, state and local governments and food stamp recipients.

But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Democrats’ demands should wait for another day, while the small business program needs more money now.

“We’ve committed to small businesses. We should top up that program now,” Mnuchin said at a briefing of the White House coronavirus task force. “I know the Democrats want to talk about more money for hospitals and states. Right now, we’re just sending the money out to the hospitals and states. They haven’t come close to using that money.”

The time for Pelosi and Schumer to fight for those things was before they gave the Republicans everything they wanted in the "CARES Act" bailout. Instead they got nothing and now they have nothing to bargain.  Mnuchin is asking to "fix" the SBA program (which does need fixing!) but that isn't something Republicans are going to make a deal with you over. Certainly not over anything that matters.

As far as the right is concerned, they are "winning" the COVID disaster.  The corporate-financial sector can print as much money as it ever needs or wants forever while scores of Americans are about to be force-marched back to work under the most precarious and dangerous conditions they've faced in a long time with no expectation of relief from anyone in power.  Mitch McConnell isn't about to bargain that away.  The time to force him to do that was before you gave him everything he wanted up front. 

If Democrats actually wanted the stimulus to be better they would have fought for a better stimulus. But, really, Democrats only want to appear as though they would have liked a better stimulus. The game now is have a fake fight over a bill that might not even happen so they can say later that they "fought" for you.

Prospects for resolving the congressional standoff are unclear as there appear to be few if any negotiations occurring between the two sides.

“Small businesses, hospitals, frontline workers and state and local governments across the country are struggling to keep up with this national crisis. They need more help from the federal government and they need it fast — our nurses, doctors and health-care workers need it as much as anyone else,” Schumer and Pelosi said in their statement.

“Further changes must also be made to the SBA’s assistance initiative, as many eligible small businesses continue to be excluded from the Paycheck Protection Program by big banks with significant lending capacity,” they said. “Funding for Covid-19 SBA disaster loans and grants must be significantly increased to satisfy the hundreds of billions in oversubscribed demand.”

Pelosi and Schumer had demanded an additional $150 billion for cities and states, $100 billion for hospitals and health-care systems and an additional 15 percent increase in benefits for food stamp recipients.

In truth, though, they don't give a shit.  Otherwise they wouldn't be trying to open negotiations at $150 billion for states and cities when the National Governor's Associations is already (all nice and bi-partisanly) asking for $500 billion. 

Nevermind that, though. In a few weeks, we will have "reopened the economy" and the conversation will already be about how soon we can cut off everyone's unemployment and force them back to work. And while that's happened we'll still be asked to thank Nancy and Chuck for having tried so hard to help.