The talking point from Democrats, including President-elect Joe Biden, is that the nearly $1 trillion pandemic relief bill currently being worked out in Congress is merely a “down payment” coming ahead of a much pricier package in the near future.
Republicans should tell them to kiss off.
Democrats for the entire year have used the pandemic to push all of their favorite wishes — “Medicare for all,” “Cancel student debt,” “Put a lot of money into the hands of a lot of people who didn’t have it before” — but that’s not what the relief packages are supposed to do. They’re supposed to be last-resort lifelines for people forced out of their jobs and businesses, not 30 reasons to celebrate government welfare.
We’re on month nine of sporadic lockdowns and “social distancing,” which have decimated the economy, drained private savings accounts, and permanently closed tens of thousands of businesses. There’s a need for more assistance for those struggling, which is what the bipartisan bill does by extending the added unemployment benefits and doling out $600 stimulus checks to middle- and lower-income earners.
Biden has described similar bills as a “down payment on what’s going to have to be done beginning the end of January into February.”
No, no, no. This should be a final installment. We were told to shut ourselves up at home until a vaccine was cleared for distribution. Well, that day has come, and it’s not just one vaccine but two, possibly more, and they supposedly work at a rate far higher than everyone had expected.
Heightened safety precautions, especially for the elderly and immunocompromised, will stick around for a while, but everyone who wants to work and reopen their restaurants, gyms, and stores should be immediately allowed. The only thing standing in their way is Democratic mayors and governors drunk on the power that the pandemic has given them.
Yes, people are dying and infections are rising. That happens in a pandemic. But the overwhelming majority of the population suffers only mild illness from the coronavirus, and as more and more of the most vulnerable people are immunized, infections and deaths should rapidly fall in the coming months.
The country has to move on. Paying people to stay out of work isn’t going to do that.
