Good evening, this is The Smoke Eater for Monday, Dec. 21, 2020, and if blues was money, I'd sure be a millionaire.
Quick Hit
* This damn bill *
NOTE: This is another one of those days where I focused on one thing so much that my brain fucking brain broke again. The Smoker Eater is mobile friendly, totally free and supported by entirely super awesome readers who still have a little extra walking around money. If you want to be super awesome and help me pay some bills, tip me on Ko-Fi, find me on Venmo, or Paypal, or subscribe to my Patreon!
The Good News
After kicking the can down the road for another 24 hours, members of Congress finally got their shit together long enough to agree to fund the government through FY2021, and roll out another $900 billion on emergency COVID-19 aid this weekend. The bill includes $600 bailout for everyone earning less than $75,000, a $300 boost to unemployment through march (including assistance for gig-workers), $25 billion for rental assistance, and $13 billion for SNAP. There's also another $284 billion for an expanded PPP that will include news outlets, churches and faith-based organizations, and $15 billion to #SaveOurStages.
There's an extension of the eviction moratorium through Jan. 31; $25 billion in emergency assistance to renters; $82 billion for schools to repair ventilation systems to reduce COVID risk, and $10 billion for daycare. Fed News Network adds that there's also a provision to let federal workers pay back deferred taxes throughout the entirety of 2021.
It's not clear how any of this will get rolled out or what else might be in the bill since some geeks had trouble getting the thing up, (They swear this never happens!) or if Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will have read the entire bill before voting on it.
BONUS: The whole bill clocks in at just under 5,600 pages. Over at the Washington Post there's a brief summary of all the big stuff, but if you have a fetish for legislative torture porn over the holidays, the House has a press release with links to front-end summaries of everything that's in the omnibus.
The Bad News
There's a number of permanent tax breaks for craft breweries, wineries, distillers, medical expenses, tuition expenses. Other stuff includes extensions for people underwater on their mortgages, investments in distressed communities, clean energy tax credits.
The AP is confirming boasts from House Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise that there's $1.4 billion for Trump's wall, and it looks like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was able to slip in a tax break for the depreciation deductions for racehorse owners, and some anti-doping regs to combat race horse deaths. Additionally, it looks like Sen. Chuck Schumer was able to convince Sen. Pat Toomey to stop bitching about the Fed and Treasury's emergency lending powers (for now).
In exchange for giving poor people some slack, the GOP will finally be able to increase the tax write off on so-called "three martini lunches" from 50 to 100 percent. This is a policy change Trump, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, TV economist Larry Kudlow, and Senate Republicans have been demanding since April, and it's been roundly criticized as a dumb idea that doesn't stimulate economic growth. Kyle Pomerleau, a bean counter at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, criticized it as "bad policy" that's, "not good economic relief for the current situation," and WaPo's Paul Waldman opined that it is, "cartoonishly villainous."
Mnuchin went on CNBC this morning to boast that some people could get their pittance as soon as next week as Congress is expected to vote on the whole thing this evening. The Wall Street Journal reports that nobody in the Senate is expected to throw another last minute tantrum to block passage, but there's already criticism that the whole package is inadequate.
Heather Long has a piece explaining just how bad things are, Ben Casselman and Jim Tankersley have a piece explaining how things are likely to get worse as the economy continues to stall, and Zachary Warmbrodt has a piece on how a lot of small businesses were barely staying afloat with the much more generous CARES Act in the spring. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate say they'll push through another aid package after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20, but the Democrats have a very narrow majority in the House, and control of the Senate is anyone's guess until after the Georgia run-offs, so conservatives/wealthy cheapskates could still screw poor and/or unemployed people. With McConnell clear of looming elections when the next round(s) of unemployment benefits and small business bailouts run out in March, it's unlikely the reality distortion bubble populated by arch-conservatives will burst under the weight of tears falling from beggars crying after a full year in quarantine.
BONUS: Someone at WaPo made a calculator to see how much of the potential $600 you could get. Think of the overdue bill(s) you can partially pay!
NOTE: Scott Atlas has a truly deranged op-ed in the WSJ (naturally) attempting to defend his role in the Trump administration's response to COVID-19. I haven't given him the honor of "Doctor" as he has been a primary advocate of the administration's herd immunity strategy that continues to argue, "we need need a portion, a large portion of the population to be infected," so people like me can serve people like him three-martini lunches they wouldn't even even tip on under normal circumstances. Sorry, kiddo, real doctors don't harm innocent people.
One More Thing...
McClatchy's Brian Murphy has a story about how North Carolina's native Lumbee tribe will have to wait another year for recognition from the federal government. Though North Carolina has recognized the tribe since 1885, the tribe has continues to wait -- over 130 years, and counting -- for federal recognition, which could bring benefits, like health care and education. The tribe had hoped for legislation to be slipped omnibus after the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs picked up the March 2019 bill last month, but it went nowhere (just like it has in every consecutive Congress for decades). Holly Kays has a piece in Smokey Mountain News from January explaining some of controversy around the Lumbee, and why some in the Cherokee nation are opposed to recognition of the Lumbee.
OK, here's a cute critter video: It's COLE AND MARMALADE!
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