Dear Mitch: Show you care about more than power. Stand up for unemployed Kentuckians.
So if you’ve recovered from the nauseating spectacle of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell eulogizing U.S. Rep. John Lewis, while holding up voting rights legislation that embodied Lewis’ selfless career in civil rights, well, you might want to grab the Pepto Bismol again.
Now McConnell’s behavior is hitting closer to home, his home state that is, where more than 1 million people have filed unemployment claims since March. On Friday, those ONE MILLION PEOPLE who happen to be constituents of one of, if not the most powerful politicians in Washington, D.C. will lose their weekly emergency unemployment benefits of $600.
But McConnell (who, let’s remember, is up for re-election this November) is signaling that the latest round of federal COVID relief will cut federal unemployment benefits from $600 to $200 a week. The Republican bill would provide $1,200 one-time checks. But Senate Republicans are worried about the deficit and that the federal benefits mean many are making more than their usual wages and so won’t look for new jobs.
Let’s break that down.
▪ Washington politicians like McConnell really need to get out and meet more regular folks if they believe that people won’t get back to work because they’re making such riches off the federal government. If they bothered to do this, they might find out that a) there are no jobs to get as we head toward another shutdown and b) we’re heading toward another shutdown because there isn’t a comprehensive federal response to COVID-19 and c) maybe we ought to do something about the fact that our wages are so low that unemployment benefits sometimes exceed wages. McConnell could maybe increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour, where it’s been since 2009, but that might upset his corporate overlords too much.
In remarks made on Tuesday, McConnell said that expanded unemployment was a tax on those who had kept working.
“This is absolutely a time to be generous and provide additional federal relief to people who’ve been laid off. But we should not be redistributing money away from the essential workers who have remained at their posts,” he said. “We should not be taxing somebody who’s been stocking shelves for months so the government can pay her neighbor more than she makes to sit at home.”
“That’s what we are talking about. Taxing essential workers to pay their neighbors a bonus to stay home.”
Um, okay. That’s certainly one way to look at it.
▪ It’s understandable that all those “fiscal hawks” in Washington (hahahahahahaha) are worried about a second trillion dollar relief bill. It’s a lot of money to help all the people suffering from a global pandemic THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WON’T ADDRESS. Just Monday, Trump was again hawking nonsense cures instead of working on a national mask mandate or a coherent plant to distribute PPE to states.
▪ So here’s what McConnell (again, among the most powerful politicians in the U.S.) can do. First, if he’s so worried about the deficit, he can start by rescinding the 2017 tax cuts, which will cost $1.9 trillion over the next decade, and mostly benefited rich people, furthering income inequality in this country. Then he can do something to guide, help, force the White House, with or without President Donald Trump, to formulate some kind of federal response to COVID-19, which is the only thing that will help our economy and put people back to work in the long run.
I realize dealing with literally the worst president in the history of the United States — a man more intent on harming peaceful protesters than stopping a virus that’s already killed 150,000 Americans — might even be beyond the master manipulator and chief enabler McConnell. Even though McConnell saved him from impeachment. So as he starts on negotiating a new relief measure with fellow Senate Republicans, and then House Democrats, the very least he can do is help Kentuckians with a measly $600 a week. Somehow, the feds can afford to include $1.75 billion for a new FBI headquarters in downtown D.C. that would help Trump’s business. They can probably find the $600 a week for America’s most vulnerable citizens.
Also on Tuesday, McConnell said the FBI building was a White House addition to the bill and he hoped all non-COVID-19 related pieces would be removed. If only we knew someone powerful enough to do that!
After all, under 30 years of McConnell in power, he’s gotten richer and more powerful and more out of touch with regular folks, but Kentucky is still nearly the poorest, sickest, least educated state in the nation. McConnell goes on the campaign trail bragging about all the projects he’s brought here that we may or may not have needed (ahem, special carp eradication projects), but now we need him to do his job and help people in Kentucky. If he’s such a great politician, he should be able to bring his other GOP members in line and make it happen. If not, why do we keep sending him back?
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 12:12 PM.
