What we are witnessing is the rot within both political parties as they pretend to help all Americans during the pandemic when in fact they view most Americans as collateral damage.
Remarkably, after one word from Trump, Pelosi is now all in on a stimulus check much larger than anything she previously proposed.
The Republicans for their part voted for a $1.5 trillion tax cut just three years ago but that wasn’t enough. The new stimulus bill needed to include $6.3 billion in additional tax deductions for business meals. And as Sanders tweeted—$120 billion tax break for business owners in the 1%, $4.2 billion tax break for offshore tax scams, $2 billion for the space force.
A forgotten fact about the Heroes Act, which Pelosi and the House passed in May 2020, is that the bill contained a provision that would remove the $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes, known as the SALT cap. An odd provision during a pandemic and economic meltdown because removing the cap would only benefit the wealthy. Schumer enthusiastically endorsed removing the cap.
From 2010 through 2019 large companies spent $1 trillion each year on stock buybacks—which were illegal before 1982—often with money borrowed at near zero interest rates provided by the Fed. When China prints money they end up with a new high speed rail line or a new airport. We don’t even question stock buybacks. And it’s unconscionable that both parties are helping the rich get richer during a crisis.
