digby: The Gravedigger of Democracy strikes again

[babylonsister]

https://digbysblog.net/2020/03/the-gravedigger-of-democracy-strikes-again/?fbclid=IwAR3RLmojsWJXF5uHI_j3g_T2Kw_iZ1sOOqs23RAuRm648Tru_yTZK11eUvw


The Gravedigger of Democracy strikes again
Published by digby on March 16, 2020


There were some complaints about the bill the House passed last week after negotiations between the administration and Pelosi to blunt the economic effects of the coronavirus crisis on average workers. It was insufficient, leaving a number of workers behind. But I suspect they were all worried about this when they made their deal:

The Senate is under tremendous pressure to send President Donald Trump a bill passed by the House to help Americans deal with the coronavirus outbreak, but complaints from a few GOP lawmakers and technical snags could delay action for up to several days.

The package providing free virus testing and paid sick leave for many workers is almost certain to pass this week, though Senate rules allow any one senator to delay a final vote for days. The bill, which overwhelmingly passed the House early Saturday morning, is running into resistance from some Republicans worried about the impact of a temporary paid sick leave provision on small businesses.

It’s unclear when the Senate will vote on the virus bill. The chamber is set to debate a surveillance measure, and it would take the permission of all 100 senators to address the virus bill early in the week.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that the administration is trying to allay concerns about the legislation, which is aimed at blunting some of the economic impact for workers and families as the coronavirus outbreak spreads in the U.S.

“We are hearing feedback that certain small businesses are concerned about the burden of this. We were very focused, we need to get the money to people quickly,” he said on the “Fox News Sunday” program. “We don’t want them to have to deal with big bureaucracy.”

This is a perennial problem for Democrats. The Republicans in charge lead us into a crisis and then Democrats are forced to make compromises just to get anything done. Since right-wingers are nihilists, they really don’t care if people suffer. They count on being able to blame the Democrats for any suffering they cause and have their brainwashed voters believe them.

Trump has weaponized all this on a level we haven’t seen before. But he didn’t invent it. And McConnell is a master.

Here we have a hard-fought negotiation between the Houe and the White House which required some compromises to bring Mnuchin and Trump along. McConnell took off for a long weekend, signaling clearly that he didn’t give a shit and would happily let people go bankrupt if that’s what it takes. He and his henchmen are now leveraging that to get their own goodies and water down the bill further. What are the Democrats going to do about it?

They simply have to be voted out of power or this is going to get worse and worse. And it’s hard to imagine what that might look like at this point.

[DBoon]

1. "certain small businesses are concerned about the burden of this."

Will they still be "concerned" when their workers start dying? When customers catch CV-19 and end up in an ICU?

Is someone's death not enough to overcome this "burden"?