President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats have touted the $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan," the latest COVID relief bill, as the answer to the pandemic. It turns out urban states will come out on top while rural states will receive very little relief.
Democrat-run states – like Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts – will receive more funding this time around than they did last year under the CARES Act. Republican-run states – like Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota – will see less from the plan. The reason is simple: funding will go to states with higher rates of poverty and unemployment, Reuters reported.
Hawaii and Nevada are two of the biggest tourism states in the nation. Because fewer Americans are vacationing, unemployment has skyrocketed to nine percent in the two states, meaning they will receive the most aid.
According to Reuters' analysis, "61% of the aid would end up in states that voted for Biden in November, up from 56% in the bipartisan CARES Act passed last March."
Some of the country's highest infection rates occurred in rural red states but because unemployment remains low, the relief amount will be much lower as well. A prime example of that is South Dakota, where Gov. Kristi Noem kept her state from having stringent restrictions.
Under $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, each state will receive a minimum of $500 million, a threshold that was $1.25 billion under the CARES Act. Tribal governments get $24.5 million and Washington, D.C. is given the same allocations as states.
When the money is broken down, that translates to $800 per person in a rural red state compared to $1,200 per person in an urban blue state, Fox News reported.
This bill bails out Democratic-run states that decided to indefinitely lockdown. A number of restaurants and hospitality businesses in places like California and New York remain on lockdown because of their governor's directives, meaning their unemployment rate is artificially inflated. But states, like South Dakota and Florida, that remained open throughout the pandemic don't get the same benefits because their numbers aren't inflated by lockdown orders.
It shouldn't come as a surprise though. Democrats run Congress and the White House. They're going to do what's in their party's best interest, not necessarily what's in the nation's best interest. If Democrats cared about making sure Americans across the board were being taken care of, they would focus on infection rates and hospitalization numbers, in addition to unemployment numbers and lockdown measures.