Stimulus stalled in Senate as leaders let America down

At the time of this writing, Phase 3 of Congress’s coronavirus bailouts still hangs in partisan limbo.

The current stimulus bill has been stalled in the Senate for days as Republicans try to push through $500 billion in unregulated corporate bailouts and Democrats try to redirect funds toward health care systems and individuals.

Here’s what we know: The current bill is worth about $2 trillion. It breaks down to $350 billion for small businesses, $100 billion for health care, $500 billion for corporations and payments to individuals or families.

Sen. Joe Manchin said to Fox News that the first two times Democrats blocked the stimulus bill the $100 billion for health care wasn’t in it. And considering we’re in the middle of a health crisis, we think that money is pretty important.

The other point of contention is that $500 billion to corporations. Negotiations continue for installing oversight of those funds to ensure the money goes to keeping employees on the payroll instead of company stock buy-backs or CEO bonuses.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “we are very close” to passing a bill. By the time you read this, either the stimulus package will be heading to the House (which is whipping up its own bill) for a vote or the senators will still be bickering.

Yes, it is important to get this right. But it’s also important to do this quickly. In our hyper-partisan world, all legislation seems to move at a snail’s pace as parties reject bills and amendments simply because the opposition proposed it.

This is not the time to be playing political games. This is not the time to pander to big dollar donors. This is not the time to protect their own interests. (We’re looking at you, senators who sold all your stocks after a private coronavirus briefing and told your friends to do the same.)

This is the time to protect and provide for the people.

Perhaps our senators and representatives would stop squabbling like school children if there was a reliable leader to guide the process.

Maybe it isn’t fair of us to expect Congress to take swift, decisive action when our president was so slow to respond to the budding pandemic. President Trump spent the first few weeks of the coronavirus outbreak denying there was a problem (“It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear,” he said on Feb. 28). When he finally did acknowledge that COVID-19 was here, he spent a few more weeks spreading misinformation (“Anybody that needs a test, gets a test,” he said March 6, which is still not true today; “We enacted legislation guaranteeing paid sick leave for workers at no cost to employers,” he said March 20, when the legislation only covers about half of working Americans) and being a poor role model (during his March 13 declaration, he shook hands or touched almost every speaker after announcing the importance of social distancing).

Right now, America needs reliable leaders at the national level who will protect and provide for us. Unfortunately, we’re still waiting.