ONGRESS

Battle Brewing Over Non-Virus Spending in Next Relief Bill

Democrats demand billions for non-virus items, while Republicans seek aid for individuals and small businesses

News Analysis

A heated debate is brewing in Congress over non-CCP virus spending in a possible fourth recovery package aimed to steer the United States toward putting “Open for Business” signs back in the windows of the national economy.

Battle lines are forming along highly polarized lines, as Demo-crats demand billions for projects having little or nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic and Republicans emphasize aid to help individuals and small busi-nesses get back on their feet.

What is beyond question is that the unprecedented $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) signed by President Donald Trump on March 27 contained billions of dollars for projects far removed from dealing with skyrocketing unemployment or failing businesses.

Research by the Taxpayers’ Protection Alliance (TPA) provided to The Epoch Times pointed to a long list of spending unrelated to the disease and its economic aftermath, including these:

• $30.8 billion for the Department of Education (DED) stabilization fund for elementary, secondary, and higher education programs

• $25 billion in transit infrastructure grants

• $10 billion in extended borrowing to the USPS

• $9.5 billion in agricultural programs

MARK TAPSCOTT

Congress is dysfunctional and can’t be trusted to restrain themselves.

Brian Darling, president, Liberty Government Affairs


CHUNG I HO/ THE EPOCH TIMES


A man wearing a protective mask in Manhattan on April 8, 2020. CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES


A man walks through the U.S. Capitol Rotunda during the pandemic, on March 24, 2020.



• $2.2 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs information technology systems

• $526 million in national network grants to the National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak)

• $345 million for Department of Labor training and employment services

• $324 million for State Department diplomatic programs

• $300 million for Social Security Administration salaries and overhead costs

• $100 million to the Federal Prison System

• $100 million for “Safe Schools and Citizenship Education”

• $95 million to the U.S.

Agency for International Development for operating expenses

• $88 million to the Peace Corps

• $75 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund National Public Radio

• $75 million each to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities

• $60 million to NASA.

• $50 million for the “ Institute of Museum and Library Services”

• $35 million for Department of Housing and Urban Development administrative support offices

• $25 million in additional salaries and expenses for the House of Representatives • $25 million for U.S.

Capitol “Construction and Operations”

• $9 million for miscellaneous Senate expenses

• $7.5 million for Smithsonian Institution salaries and expenses

• $3.1 million for Maritime Administration operations and training An April 7 Congressional Research Service (CRS) analysis of CARES explained, for example, that the DED stabilization fund assistance “provides for the distribution of approximately $14 billion to [colleges and universities] to address needs directly related to coronavirus, including, but not limited to, transitioning courses to distance education and grant aid to students for their educational costs such as food, housing, course materials, health care, and child care.”

How giving college students more money for food, books, housing, and other normal daily needs helps them cope with the pandemic wasn’t explained by CRS.

But Ross Marchand, TPA’s director of policy, told The Epoch Times on April 14 that “for the higher education portion, it looks like at least half of the funds need to go directly to students in emergency grants above and beyond what they are getting now. The other half can be used by the university to pay for switching instruction over to digital learning, but I’m sure there’s a lot of discretion there.”

Congressional Republicans have their own pork problems, according to Jim Manley, former senior aide to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“Republicans aren’t even raising an eyebrow at one provision slipped into the CARES bill dealing with a tax break for wealthy individuals that the Joint Committee on Taxation suggests will cost $195 billion over 10 years,” Manley said.

The provision benefits hedge fund investors and real estate business owners.

Next Bill Worse?

David Williams, TPA’s president, warned the next relief package could be worse than CARES.

“The taxpayer wheel of (mis)fortune keeps spinning, with us never knowing how much Congress will spend on unrelated items. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) success in tacking unneeded, unnecessary pork-barrel spending to the CARES Act sets a troubling precedent for future coronavirus-related relief legislation,” Williams said.

Williams pointed to the Postal Service seeking another $75 billion in the next relief legislation, “despite the agency’s longstanding financial problems predating the pandemic. Awarding grants to irresponsible organizations and agencies does nothing for coronavirus patients and simply sets the stage for more problems in the future.”

A related issue is the timing of a fourth package. Brian Darling, former senior counsel to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and founder of Liberty Government Affairs, told The Epoch Times on April 14 that Congress “should not pass a fourth bill until the impact of the $2 trillion bill can be assessed to see if it worked as intended.”

Darling said that “the urge to ‘do something’ so Congress can provide themselves with political cover from voter blowback in November is strong and may cost taxpayers another $1 trillion by

the end of this year.”

Romina Boccia of The Heritage Foundation agreed with Darling, observing that “much of the relief provided in the CARES Act has yet to reach the intended businesses and individuals and lawmakers should be focused on constituent services to help people navigate the complex web of supports.”

That means, said Boccia, who directs the conservative think tank’s Grover M. Herman Center for the Federal Budget, that “all policies should be temporary and targeted directly toward addressing the public health crisis and keeping workers attached to their employers and widespread business failures to preserve the valuable infrastructure and networks, which will fuel the recovery once this becomes possible.”

The bottom line, Darling said, is that “Congress is dysfunctional and can’t be trusted to restrain themselves.”

But in a taste of the coming debate, Jimmy Williams, former senior economic adviser to Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), told The Epoch Times that “it’s Congress’ job to spend our taxpayer dollars. If a member doesn’t like the pork in these bills, vote against it.

“Frankly, I’m tired of members from both sides of the aisle complaining about deficits when they’ve done nothing to fix the problem in almost a decade.”

Contact Mark Tapscott at Mark.Tapscott@ epochtimes. nyc


CHUNG I HO/ THE EPOCH TIMES


A sign on the door of The Smith announces that its dining room is closed due to the CCP virus epidemic, in New York on March 18, 2020.

In case anyone ever wondered...

A group of baboons, is called a 'congress'.

Move ye all to New Zealand, paradise and fantastic leadership......when our borders actually open in 2069

A lot of stuff on that list is dependent on details not included.

It's not true, for example, that funding going to Social Security has nothing to do with the problems caused by the virus mess.

Something that very politically biased article completely ignores, is that in addition to the fact that Congress (no matter who's in charge) rarely passes any spending bill that is devoid of politically related items, ALSO always suffers from what could be called "Unfortunate Naming Convention Syndrome."

That is, that just because the TITLE of one or more elements doesn't sound related, doesn't mean that it isn't.

I always remember a particular congresspeople I came to strongly dislike back in the last century, who promoted himself every year, by ostentatiously claiming that all sorts of spending was entirely silly, and listing the titles of various bills accordingly. Someone in the media finally began doing more than just printing the titles, and looked into what the spending was really about, and found that nine times out of ten, it was important, even critical work being done, that just SOUNDED silly.

One thing I remember especially, was spending to develop a canon to shoot raw chickens.

The title was basic, and said something about shooting raw chickens, so it made a great headline for the congress guy who wanted to get reelected for "saving taxpayers from silly spending," but what he'd actually done, was tried to block the development of testing equipment to make airplanes safer from lethal birdstrikes.

So don't be so quick to pounce on spending bill titles that don't fit your prejudices right off the bat. They MIGHT be bad ideas, but chances are there's a lot more to it than whichever professional self-serving "griper" wants to believe.

Why do lady Baboons have such big red bottoms?

well just heard the news... about reopening the country ...


let me make this short...

elderly going to die first... becouse we are not equipment... to handle this virus as it is an then hospitals will be over run again...once we reopen slowly ... so the elderly go first... and more will die in their homes ...
how is that for property tax sales ...
oh just bring in that bla bla cleaning service in


some states making their own decisions of cause after they tally the dead an no... while the united states wait for shipments from china to make what we need ... for more testing ... personally... I think we should open the bars first so many can die happy we are one of the only countries to not figure out the damn tests that are needed and have to rely on other countries parcels ...
this has becouse a d*mn auction market gowd ... and I am totally p*st trying to keep others safe when they don't give 2 chits about their own ... walk a round with nothing because your young ... yep... if where going to get it... where just going to get it ... and some small Business nothing their broke from this round an some unemployment not getting yet DOAR ... can't imagine why ...and forgot be careful some of this has to be paid back ... been their done that ...

Give 2 (chits) shamelessly bold girls?
🤣

Some of these governors are going power mad from getting to use "Governor General" authority. Look at California and New York amongst the handful. They say a person flies their true colors in times of adversity. These morons believe themselves dictators, demigods and tirants. In the olden days we get a malisha together and hang them by the neck from a lamp post until they were dead.

laugh: I love hear say :>) well I have to laugh becouse my governor I voted for in the last election :as a democrat... the SOAB got in office and turned freaking republican ... I was livid ... did me know good lol

heard something today ...which brought to mind ... do you know how much we pay for Home land security... don't you think we should be able to come up with a vaccine a little earlier the a yr and a !/2 ... then those experimenting with that drug for malaria ...that may be working and maybe not ... this was funny older-> Lewis Black Homeland Security remember the levels we had for this ... they where colored


https://youtu.be/aXCRa8kM38M


Lewis Black- Smallpox and Greedy people
https://youtu.be/fWphxJvyovQ

https://youtu.be/sSzwLLe2JYc