Good evening, this is The Smoke Eater for Wednesday, December 16, 2020, and how low can a punk get?
Quick Hit
* It’s not a bribe * The 116th's midnight hour * The House always wins * COVID in India*
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Make A Wish
There's a greater-than-zero chance the government won't shut down and we'll all get more COVID relief now that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on speaking terms with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Additionally, the House's crybaby caucus began threatening to withhold their support for anything until the package contained another round of bailouts so Americans could pay overdue bills. Initially proposed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Josh Hawley, and something the White House supports, it looks like everyone is going to get more stimulus checks -- though it's probably closer to the $600-$700 proposed by Mnuchin last week (it's unclear if checks will have Trump's name on them). Politico reports McConnell changed his tune when he found out the Georgia Senate run-offs race were going poorly for Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, and is hoping a cash bribe will boost their chances.
That proposal is part of the $748 billion spin-off of the $908 billion bill cobbled together by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. The Wall Street Journal is reporting the total cost will probably be around $900 billion, and will include lots of money for small businesses (most of which will be in the griftable super hot mess we call the Paycheck Protection Program). There's $35 billion for health-care providers, $82 billion for schools, and $6 billion for vaccine distribution. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul was first out of the gate to complain about government spending (as usual), but he says he won't stand in the way. The whole thing is expected to get stapled onto the $1.7 trillion government funding omnibus that has to pass by Friday (unless they punt everything into next week ... again).
Sen. Chuck Schumer is fighting for $17 billion a part of a #SaveOurStages push, but Republican's aren't totally on board. At the moment it seems that debate over funding for state and local governments and a liability shield is off the table until the 117th Congress comes to town.
BONUS: Texas Monthly unknowingly published a cautionary tale for why some might want to be able to sue over COVID exposure in a short piece about wedding photographers. Even under normal circumstances, weddings can turn the most sober person into a reckless, irresponsible and selfish prick, and a good photographer has to capture every moment of that "special day."
Everything Is Awesome
The Federal Reserve thinks the U.S. economy will shrink by 2.4 percent. The Fed has decided not to tempt Adam Smith's invisible hand and will keep interest rates near-zero. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell added that the Fed would continue to keep markets from freaking out by buying up hundreds of billions in government bonds, cautioning, "the next few months are likely to be very challenging." All of this comes as the poverty rate in America rocketed from from 2.4 percent in June to 11.7 percent in November (~8 million people).
Flood The Zone With Lameduck Legislation
Members of Congress are hoping to jam through a few last minute items on their wish lists before the 116th Congress heads home for the holidays. Roll Call reports that legislators are hoping to cram a number of energy and environment rules into the spending omnibus, like a goal on green energy production, cuts to Hydrofluorocarbons, sweetheart deals for nuclear energy, and weatherization and efficiency programs. Another could be official limits on federal and legislative power that were used to be considered rules and norms until Trump administration walked all over them.
One of the things that could be left on the cutting room floor as the 116th packs up are new rules and regulations on the FAA in the aftermath of Boeing's 737 MAX disasters (which are about to take off again after being grounded for 20 months).
Congress is about bring the bureaucratic hammer down on the use of anonymous shell companies after tucking new regulations everybody could agree upon in the National Defense Authorization Act. Also inside the NDAA is new Polar Security Cutters for the Coast Guard that will be used as ice breakers; Defense News reports that the the Trump administration is hoping to lease an icebreaker owned by a major Republican donor that's been docked in Tampa, Florida. As Trump still hasn't signed the NDAA, legislators are now cobbling together a plan for an override vote in the event Trump decides to throw a tantrum and veto the NDAA.
Odds and Ends
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ran to the safety of The Intercept to complain about Democratic leadership. AOC argues the old people won't help the young whipper snappers caucus, so fresh faces don't know what they're doing or how to compete with the clever old bastards who've managed to stay in office for 20 or 30 years. Like an aging punk hiding a faded half-sleeve of Dead Kennedys lyrics under a power suit, AOC says the whipper snappers will just fight the system from the inside by picking fights about against pay-go.
Politico reports it's entirely possible that California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom could face a recall thanks to a perfect storm of tantrums by conservative crackpots, backstabbing politicos salivating for a chance to move up the pecking order, a low threshold for recall requirements, and the really shitty financial situation (almost) everybody is in these days.
One More Thing...
The New York Times has a heartbreaking photoessay that helps show how India's caste system exacerbated the pandemic. Next to the United States, no other country on the planet has recorded more COVID-19 infections. This is due to overcrowded trains shuttling tens of millions of migrant workers back to rural villages when government officials finally enacted a nationwide lockdown back in March. Like the U.S., India's ultra-nationalist government has resisted additional lockdown protocols that could curb the spread of the virus even as the virus rips through India's poor and rural villages. In September, the BBC reported that India seemed to moving towards a herd immunity strategy even as thousands of deaths per day became normalized because officials were reluctant to shutdown the economic engines again.
OK, here's a cute critter video: It's OWL KITTY!
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