Senate Republicans have a bill in the works that would provide aid to businesses and their employees who are at risk as a result of government-mandated business reduction to minimum production or to outright closure. That plan would provide for
taxpayers to receive up to $1,200, with married couples eligible to receive as much as $2,400 with an additional $500 for every child. Those payments will scale down for individuals who make more than $75,000 and couples that make more than $150,000. Individuals who make more than $99,000 and households that earn more than $198,000 won’t be eligible for direct assistance.
And
provide $50 billion in loan guarantees for passenger air carriers, $8 billion for cargo air carriers and $150 billion for other large businesses, authorizing the government to take equity stakes in them. The proposal also includes $300 billion for loan guarantees for small businesses.
Progressive-Democrats in both the Senate and the House object because of course they do—it’s not their idea.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) said late Thursday that the Senate Republican plan “is not at all pro-worker and instead puts corporations way ahead of workers.”
Of course. Because direct payments to workers are not at all pro-workers. Because workers who lose their jobs because employers went out of business will simply be transferred to the Progressive-Democrats’ welfare cage.
The Senate plan does need to be carefully constructed, though, so that any money offered to businesses is promptly repaid, at market interest rates.