US Covid relief bill smaller than either parties pre-election promises | Hacker News Reader

US Covid relief bill smaller than either parties pre-election promises

taibbi.substack.com

32 pointskonjin16 comments

While small businesses closed and people suffered, politicians played power-games with our lives. Now that we technically don’t matter anymore - the election is over - the politicians have lost interest. It happens every 2 - 4 years and this won’t be the last.

It seems to me that what happened was

Before the election the Democrats were incentivized to push through a big bill to help people, and the Republicans were incentivized to push through a big bill to help them win the elections.

Pelosi killed the deal, believing Trump was a larger threat than a lack of stimulus.

But now that we're past the election the Republicans don't really have any reason to pass a large stimulus bill.

Which leads us to a tiny bill.

>But now that we're past the election the Republicans don't really have any reason to pass a large stimulus bill.

And neither do the democrats since they already won.

Is there anything that leads you to believe that democrats had something to do with negotiating it down?

Other than not accepting the republican offer that was twice the size of this one before the election?

No, not really.

In the same way I have no proof that a coin which lands heads 50 times in a row is biased.

Except that the earlier one proposed to remove all business liability for negligent or even malicious coronavirus safety practices and this one doesn't have anything on that yet, right?

So you're good with businesses that were running a betting pool on how many of their employees got Covid having full legal immunity?

Complete Covid liability exemption for businesses is one of the provisions in the bill you're saying the Democrats should have passed.

Just making sure where you stand. That's all.

The democratic party is the party of the affluent and sacrosant, so it's no surprise that they opt to make a million poor families suffer so one injustice wouldn't slide.

Their fragile world view remains intact, while none of their constituents pay the price.

Just the make sure where you stand.

> so one injustice wouldn't slide

Amazon has pending lawsuits about this in multiple countries. Meat packers are staring down lawsuits about this across several states. These lawsuits cover millions of employees.

If you are trying to argue that there was just a single instance of this kind of offense, you're in a world of fantasy.

And it's a tossup as to whether they're going to get more from the lawsuits or from government assistance--both are going to be woefully inadequate.

yes, how dare these business keep the wheels on society during a crisis. They should be punished. What's a thousand kids going hungry, but a small price to pay for all of society's ills perfectly adjudicated.

>Pelosi killed the deal, believing Trump was a larger threat than a lack of stimulus.

That's odd. White House staffers said it was the president[0].

[0] https://www.axios.com/trump-coronavirus-stimulus-negotiation...

What a shockingly dishonest title. Well first, the relief bill is smaller by a lot because there are now 2 relief packages "worth a total of $908 billion. The first bill, with a $748 billion price tag, will include all the spending both sides have signed off on, including replenished funding for small-business loans, extended unemployment, money for schools and vaccine distribution.

Senators will hive off the other $160 billion into a separate bill. That measure will focus on items that continue dividing the parties, including a business liability shield and aid to state and local governments, Politico and CNN reported Sunday night."

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/14/finance-2...

How about instead of reading totally made up blogs we stick to real news sources with actual reporting?

>How about instead of reading totally made up blogs we stick to real news sources with actual reporting?

Maybe read more than the title then?

The article never mentions the liability thing, which is key (at least searching liability I didn't find anything).

Matt Taibbi[0] is a well known writer/journalist known for his over-the-top, often obnoxious style.

As such, it's not a "totally made up" blog. That said, he's an acquired taste.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Taibbi

Are general/topical political posts ok as long as through a ycombinator company intermediary (substack)?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com