It made no sense for President Trump to say he was ending negotiations for another economic relief package as the pandemic continues and millions of people remain forced by the government to remain on lockdown. But it was especially dumb, considering it’s House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who are the ones looking like unreasonable maniacs for refusing to give those suffering any money at all.
Pelosi signaled again during a press conference on Thursday that her party won’t agree to anything outside of the $2.5 trillion bill, obnoxiously named the HEROES Act.
Republicans, including Trump, obsess over the fact that too much of the money in the bill is allocated to Democratic-run states that need their government worker pension budgets funded. But that’s not the most pressing problem with Pelosi’s proposal. The problem is that she once again wants to flush people with another $600 in weekly bonuses on top of whatever unemployment they’re getting at the state level. That serves as nothing more than an additional delay in restoring the economy and, most dire, an incentive for people to opt-out of working because they’re making hundreds of dollars more by not.
After Trump’s brief moment of insanity, he wrote on Twitter that he would be willing to sign bills that provide more than $1,000 in relief checks per person and more money to support airlines, which have suffered from a dramatic drop in travelers due to COVID-19.
Pelosi has said she won’t agree to passing those measures because they wouldn’t do “enough.” Maybe we should ask some people who currently don’t have a job if they could use a $1,200 check. Maybe we should ask the hundreds or even thousands of people in the commercial aviation industry who are in jeopardy of losing their jobs if they think billions of dollars in government assistance isn’t “enough.”
Democrats are eager to move millions of people onto indefinite government assistance right now, just as they’ve always been. That can’t happen. But too many people are out of work because they’ve been forced out by that same government.
Trump can’t walk away from trying. But he can force Pelosi to keep saying no.
