Daily Archives: April 1, 2020

Back in 2008, the U.S. economy was crumbling due to many homeowners not paying their mortgages on their homes, as well as that vast number of Americans filing for bankruptcy. Historians and economists call this the Great Recession, which was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Many Republicans opposed a fiscal stimulus. The most common reason was that it would grow an already large budget deficit, which would lay the foundation for the next recession. They argued the best stimulus would be to do nothing for the economy, and therefore, favored slashing government spending to reduce the impact on the budget. This same approach is exactly what FDR did in 1937, which led the recession of 1937-1938.

In 2008, Republicans denounced bailouts for private businesses that were done through TARP Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was the bailout that was designed to save the economy from the crisis that nearly brought on a second Great Depression. Although this was constructed and signed into law by President George W. Bush, Republicans blamed President Obama for any problem with this program.

Conservative economist Milton Friedman suggested that the Great Depression was the cause of the Federal Reserves mistake of allowing the money supply to drastically shrink, which created severe deflation in our economy. As a result, banks collapsed and those with deposits would lose everything in their accounts.

Friedman suggested that the Federal Reserve could have prevented this by buying up massive amounts of government bonds, which would pump cash into a deflated economy by increasing the money supply.

In 2008, Republican economist and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke enacted the policies Friedman suggested. As a result, it was successful at preventing the banking system from collapsing, infused cash into a deflated economy, and prevented a second Great Depression.

Today, Republicans are pushing the massive $2 triilion stimulus to address the fallout from the coronavirus on the economy. A large portion of this stimulus is in the form of bailouts for large businesses and corporations, with very little, comparatively, going to the average working class American. However, Republicans said in 2008 that the TARP bailout of $700 billion was too expensive. Back in 2009, the Tea Party formed by Republicans in opposition to such bailouts, but are silent today.

Republicans have proven to be hypocrites about bailouts. You can even make the case that they have lied and changed their position when it suits them. For example, they are opposed to anything that grows the budget deficit when a Democrat is president, but largely grow the deficit when a Republican is president.

When Obama was in office, they opposed anything he did that wouldve grown the deficit, such as his $800 billion infrastructure stimulus, but favored Trumps $2 trillion tax cut and massive spending programs that are increasing the budget deficit by $1 trillion every year as far out as 2030.

(Dr. Joseph Frusci is a New Springville resident.)

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Republicans are bailout hypocrites (letter to the editor) - SILive.com

Americas public health system, already stretched thin by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, could look even shakier come spring 2021. According to the Daily Beast, 18 Republican attorneys general still plan to participate in a lawsuit that could repeal the Affordable Care Act within a year. Representatives for five of these attorneys general confirmed to the outlet that they remain committed to overturning Obamacare regardless of the pandemic, which continues to spread in the very states they preside over. Its always been a question of legality, not health care policy, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Attorney General argued.

This is not the first GOP attempt to weaken the law, and repealing Obamacare would have an enormous impact on the countrys public health system, pandemic or not. But, as the Daily Beast notes, the timing of the decisionpotentially during the recovery stagegives it a seismic significance. At least 20 million Americans covered by Obamacare will lose their coverage if the law is repealed. The only thing worse than a public health pandemic is a public health pandemic without health care, Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson said. Two coronavirus cases mentioned in the articleone of a teenage boy who died after being turned away from a hospital because he didnt have insurance, another of an uninsured woman who, after going to the hospital for treatment, was billed $35,000give an early preview to what could become the new normal, depending on which way the Supreme Court rules.

At a Fox News Town Hall earlier this month, Donald Trump explained his administrations reasoning for following through with the case. We want to terminate Obamacare because its bad, he said, calling the law very defective. When asked by an audience member about the GOPs failure to come up with an alternativeNBC notes that Trump has not backed a specific plan since he failed to replace the act in 2017he first praised himself for [getting] rid of the individual mandate, which was the worst part of Obamacare and then claimed that we have many healthcare plans now where its 60 percent, even 65 percent less expensive than Obamacare. While Trump added that what wed like to do is totally kill it, he praised his administration for managing [the remaining portion] fantastically. The way to get you really fantastic healthcare, he told the audience member, is to win back the house, keep the Senate, keep the White House.

To no surprise, the former vice president continues to deride Trumps pursuit of the case. Yesterday, Joe Biden called the GOPs continued push unconscionable given that Americans are already afraid of the impact the deadly COVID-19 pandemic is having on their livesthey don't need the added stress of losing their health insurance. He again urged to drop the lawsuit, something he advocated for last week in a letter to Trump and other conservatives. NBC called Bidens health care plan Obamacare-plus, preserving the status quo while helping uninsured people buy coverage by boosting subsidies, and competing with private insurers with an additional public option.

Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, wants Medicare for All, which would upend the current system and provide the same plan to everyone regardless of their employment status. It is nearly impossible to believe that anyone can still think its acceptable to continue with a health care system that leaves tens of millions of people uninsured, Sanders said earlier this month while addressing the coronavirus outbreak. The cruelty and absurdity of that view is more obvious in the midst of this crisis than it has ever been.

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Republicans Could Kill Obamacare In the Middle of Coronavirus Recovery - Vanity Fair

Prominent Republicans eyeing a 2024 White House bid have placed themselves at the epicenter of efforts to blunt the coronavirus pandemic, with some departing from President Trump by proposing an extended and more aggressive economic shutdown.

As Trump floats reopening a quarantined national economy by Easter, two Republican senators with presidential aspirations, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rick Scott of Florida, support tightening current restrictions and maintaining them for at least 30 days. Scotts eight-point plan would suspend domestic airline travel and place a moratorium on peoples monthly financial obligations. Cotton advocates nationwide shelter-in-place rules and is urging the administration to heed the recommendations of Anthony Fauci and other experts.

This is the stark truth: we have to arrest the spread of the China virus to get the economy back on its feet & get life back to something like normal, Cotton tweeted Tuesday. The same day, Trump began discussing the need to balance public health concerns properly with the damage to a stunted economy could have on the public's psyche.

Cotton and Scott are among a handful of potential 2024 presidential candidates who have sought to influence the federal governments response to the coronavirus. Others have been drafted, willingly or not, by virtue of their position in the Trump administration. Vice President Mike Pence was tapped to lead the White House pandemic task force; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is running point as it relates to coordination and interaction abroad.

Marco Rubio of Florida, chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee and a potential 2024 contender, was the lead Republican negotiator of a bipartisan blueprint to rescue small businesses teetering on insolvency because of the pandemic. The measure was a critical component of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package poised to clear Congress this week.

With thousands of businesses endangered and millions poised to lose their jobs, some Republican strategists believe GOP primary voters will reward, or punish, 2024 contenders based on how they responded to the economic fallout.

At the very least, some political professionals expect the coronavirus pandemic to affect how Republicans campaign, even if it does not substantially alter what primary voters are looking for in a successor to Trump.

As candidates fine-tune their resumes for 2024, expect them to find ways to prove they can be trusted to lead in times of turmoil, said Bruce Haynes, a former Republican campaign consultant who is now vice chairman of public affairs for the Washington firm Sard Verbinnen & Co., adding that it was possible voters might end up caring less about ideology and more about questions such as, Can they lead?

Nikki Haley immediately resigned from her position on the board of directors of Boeing in a protest over the airplane manufacturers request for federal assistance to help mitigate financial challenges caused by the onset of the coronavirus. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and Trumps first ambassador to the United Nations, has used Twitter and her political nonprofit organization as platforms to push preferred policies for addressing the pandemic.

DONT bail out individual industries, pick winners and losers, or pass a bloated stimulus package, Haley tweeted.

A veteran Republican operative advising GOP congressional candidates on the 2020 ballot expressed surprise that more potential 2024 hopefuls have not joined Haley in opposing the corporate rescue package included in the coronavirus relief bill.

Most of the 2024 Republicans seem to have the herd mentality on the relief bills, the GOP operative said. I thought one or two might vote against the legislation and use that as a wedge in the future You supported bailing out corporations, and I did not. But no one has caved on that yet.

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Republicans targeting 2024 White House bid diverge from Trump on coronavirus - Washington Examiner