For weeks, we have been told that President Joe Biden will govern as a unifier, not a divider. For weeks, we have also been told that Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is a coronavirus relief package that is popular with Democrats and Republicans.
Apparently, we have been sold a bill of goods, no pun intended.
Just days after the American Rescue Plan was passed by the U.S. Senate, we were told a very different story about the bill.
According to White House Press Secretary Jen “Circle Back” Psaki, the American Rescue Plan is actually “one of the most consequential and most progressive pieces of legislation in American history.”
Wait, what? I thought the American Rescue Plan was, as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recently described, “a tremendous step forward to defeat the virus and provide relief to families and small businesses in need. It honors our heroes – our health care workers, food, sanitation and transportation workers, and teachers – who are on the frontlines on the state and local level. It crushes the virus with the equitable and immediate distribution of the vaccine. And it puts our children safely back in school and puts workers back on the job. Overall, this coronavirus-centric legislation puts nearly a trillion dollars in the pockets of America’s families.” As if.
In reality, Psaki is correct. The American Rescue Plan is one of the most progressive bills in U.S. history. Despite Pelosi’s pleading that the American Rescue Plan is all about COVID-19 relief, that simply is not true.
According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, “Only about 1 percent of the entire package goes toward COVID vaccines, and 5 percent is truly focused on public health needs surrounding the pandemic. Meanwhile, nearly half of the package will be spent on poorly targeted rebate checks and state and local government aid, including to households and governments that have experienced little or no financial loss during this crisis.”
If only 6 percent of the $1.9 trillion spending bill is allocated to directly addressing the ongoing pandemic, it is a farce to say the bill is coronavirus-centric.
Far from being coronavirus-centric, the American Rescue Plan would be more accurately described as socialist-centric.
For starters, the bill includes a very socialist/progressive $350 billion blue state bailout that has nothing to do with COVID-19, but everything to do with wealth redistribution from fiscally responsible states to those with huge budget deficits and rampant unemployment.
The bill also includes a bunch of big subsides to entice more Americans to sign up for the ultra-progressive health insurance disaster known as Obamacare. As well as reparations for black farmers. White farmers need not apply. Can you feel the progressivism, yet?
And that is really just the tip of the progressive iceberg deeply embedded within the American Rescue Plan.
The American Rescue Plan also contains $1,400 checks from Uncle Sam, an increase to SNAP benefits, an extension of the $300 per week federal unemployment bonus, $29 billion for rent and utility costs and mortgage payment assistance, and a $130 billion for the education industrial complex.
No wonder Psaki gleefully touted the American Rescue Plan as a progressive bulwark. That is exactly what it is.
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