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Economy: Bailout bill helps the rich, not workers

Working people of America are about to get their share of crumbs from the banquet table of the rich. Called the Bailout Bill, it’s officially pegged at $2.2 trillion, but is actually much more. It is the biggest transfer of wealth in history.

We’ll suffer from this flow of wealth from the pockets of hard-working people, including doctors, nurses, EMT (ambulance) medics, warehouse workers, drivers, and all those who are currently keeping the economic afloat, or help by isolating ourselves from the virus, to the bloated pockets of big corporations, people born into great wealth, Wall St. wheeler-dealers, big developers (like Trump) and landlords.

On Wednesday, April 15, the $1,200 direct deposits should appear in the bank accounts of millions of taxpayers and social security recipients. Those without direct deposit accounts will have to wait a little longer. Contact the IRS, after April 15, if you didn’t get your payment, or are worried about it. In addition, unemployment insurance was kicked up $600 per week for the next four months. There is also a moratorium on student loan repayments for the next four months. That’s it for the vast majority of people in this country. If you want more, you have to be a 1 percenter.

The CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) bill is classic “trickle-down” economics, discredited in the Reagan-Bush regime, which ended in a massive recession. What should have been down was to craft a “trickle-up” bill, where significant payments would go to working people in the form of a Universal Basic Income (UBI), permanent unemployment wages equal in pay to the job that was lost, Medicare for All, and abolition of student fees and tuition. All of which would have given millions of working people the ability to buy society’s goods and services. If any corporations can’t hack it, the company should fall into the hands of its employees, who would get federal aid to get it on its feet. 

The CARES Act focuses its resources on the wealthy and the biggest corporations. Billions are also bestowed to small business owners, while the working class, at least 80 percent of the populatio, gets the crumbs. Coincidentally, the upper class and small business owners are overwhelmingly Republican, while the vast working class mainly thinks, wrongly, that the Democrats represent their interests.

Wait until you hear about the big double-cross by the Wall Street financial wizards. Even though Congress voted for a $2.2 trillion appropriation, the rich will realize between $6.5 to $7 trillion, in all, because of leveraged loans to corporations made through the Federal Reserve Bank with Department of the Treasury approval.

In essence, the Fed will make loans with ten cents (of the bailout) on the dollar. It will, in fact, inject more money into circulation. Everything will be fine, as long as those corporations are able to pay back these loans. If they can’t, then inflation will be the least of our problems. 

This sleight of hand was well known before anyone in Congress voted for the bill. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was gleefully bragging in the halls of Congress about how he would turn $454 billion in the bill into at least $4 trillion. Yet, the Senate voted 96-0 in favor of this lopsided bailout, and Nancy Pelosi used the despicable tactic of a voice vote in the House. It’s as if the vote to invade Iraq had been by voice vote. No one would have stood for such a tactic in 2003, but only one lone Republican, Thomas Massie (R-Ky) offered any resistance by calling for a roll call vote. His proposal was quickly defeated, by a voice vote.

Who didn’t vote for the bailout bill? Four Republican senators were listed as not voting, which likely means they were not there. Those not voting included two senators from Utah, Lee and Romney, Rand Paul of Kentucky and John Thune of South Dakota. All other senators voted for the bill.

Because of the voice vote in the house, it is more difficult to know who opposed the bill, or if there was a quorum. The Intercept is trying to get information on how House members voted, but currently lists 43 as “No Information.” Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez vote is a mystery. In a tweet, she wrote that she “would have” voted no. But why wouldn’t she have been there, after participating in the debate. Her squad friends, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar voted yes. No information is listed for Ayanna Pressley. Well-known congress people who were among the 43 definitely not voting for the ripoff, or bailout, were Eleanor Holmes Norton, Tulsi Gabbard, John Lewis, Bill Keating, Tim Ryan, Jim Clyburn, Sheila Jackson Lee and Joachin Castro. The entire list can be seen by clicking this link: Who voted how?