A Democratic Wish List ~ in COVID-19’s Clothing
No need to wait for August’s Democratic Party convention to see the party’s platform: Democrats have spelled it all out in their new COVID-19’s clothing/wishlist legislation.
The Democratic majority in the House passed its so-called HEROES Act, an extreme leftwing grab bag of proposals dramatically out of step with a majority of voters. They dolled it up with some COVID-19 window dressing but at its core, the legislation plays to the Bernie Sanders crowd.
There’s a long list of things not to like in the bill. Here are a few that will turn off most thoughtful voters.
The original economic stimulus “CARES” Act provided an additional $600 per week in unemployment benefits on top of existing state benefits through the end of July. The HEROES Act would extend that benefit to the end of the year with a further extension for some through March 2021.
Across the country, two-thirds of the unemployed are receiving benefits that exceed the wages they were earning when they were working. The median unemployed worker is receiving 134 percent of those prior wages.
Laid-off restaurant, hospitality, and service workers in Southern Utah who might have been making $500 per week are entitled to state unemployment benefits in the $250 to $300 per week range. With the federal addition, these workers are now receiving $850 or more per week.
It doesn’t take an MBA to recognize an incentive to stay off the job: going back to work results in a pay cut. Around the country, many of these workers are refusing to return.
By proposing to continue this travesty, Democrats demonstrate once again that they know how to distort the labor market.
Not satisfied with showing workers the benefits of welfare dependency, the HEROES Act would give a second $1200 payment to all Americans and – get ready for this – two $1200 payments to illegal aliens as well.
In addition the Act protects illegal aliens who are “critical infrastructure workers” from deportation. A janitor at a meatpacking plant would qualify. With their $2400 in stimulus payments in hand, they can stay on the job while over 25 million citizens are unemployed.
I’m stunned. Democrats have got to be kidding. What part of the word “illegal” don’t they understand?
I’m a longtime advocate of significantly increased legal immigration but I’m an even longer time advocate of obeying the law, even when I don’t agree with it.
Ready for a few more absurdities?
Public funding for abortions, opposed by well over a majority of Americans, is proposed. Many state laws requiring voter identification, favored by over 80 percent of Americans, would be overturned. Recreational marijuana-related businesses would be given access to currently-denied banking services.
Not forgotten is the student loan scam where the federal government “loans” your tax dollars to students. Since they are loans, they appear as “assets” and don’t require appropriations or increase the deficit. Students forward the money to their colleges that in turn hire vast numbers of well-paid administrators whose numbers exceed professors on most campuses.
The Act would suspend student loan repayments along with interest accrual while significantly expanding the number of “public service” jobs that qualify for complete loan forgiveness. Expect all $1.7 trillion in student loans to be forgiven in a Democratic follow-on to HEROES.
Not wanting to leave anyone out, how about a tax cut for wealthy residents of high-tax blue states? Democrats propose repealing the $10,000 federal deduction limit for state and local taxes. The effect is to lower the federal tax bill for high-income folks in California, New York, and other tax-and-spend blue states.
Oh, how could I forget COVID-19 impacts on state budgets, especially states in effect governed by their public employee unions? States have over-promised pension benefits to their employees. As of 2018 they had unfunded liabilities of about $1.4 trillion (yes, trillion).
Many of these blue states spend more each year on their retirees than they do on education. One observer asks, “How much do you want to shortchange today’s first-graders and college freshmen in the service of tomorrow’s retired DMV clerks?”
Democrats’ HEROES Act allocates over $1 trillion to states, most of it as unrestricted cash. But given their track record, blue-state legislators will find ways to spend the money without bothering to fund their retirement plans. Then they’ll be back for more.
The ant and the grasshopper fable comes to mind. Utah is a well-managed state that the Pew Charitable Trusts rate as one of two states “best prepared for the coronavirus economic upheaval.” Why should Utah taxpayers along with others from states who’ve spent prudently be forced to pony up for “grasshopper” spendthrifts in other states?
I wonder how many first-term Democratic House members from competitive districts will find themselves backpedaling when their Republican challengers raise these issues in debates.
Bernie Sanders’ radical-left shadow is looming large over Joe Biden and now the HEROES Act gives this fall’s voters what Sanders’ supporters claimed they always wanted: a clear choice. We’ll see if Democrats like the result.
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