Category Archives: jobs

Government Aid and Government Stakes

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The current version of the Federal assistance to American airlines contemplates the government taking stakes—in the form of warrants convertible to (voting) common stock—in return for sending money to the airlines to help tide them over the disruptions resulting from the current Wuhan Virus situation. There are a number of objections to such a condition, most of them valid. Flight attendant unions have their own objection. They’ve

urged federal officials not to make grants to airlines contingent on government stakes, saying they believe executives would refuse—costing jobs in an industry hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

I have a couple of thoughts on the flight attendants’ objection; I’ve already expressed my objections to the government taking stakes in private business.

One thought is that the jobs supposedly to be lost would be, primarily, union jobs, and that can only be good for the airlines’ bottom lines as labor costs come down, especially if replacement hires on the turn-around are not from unions, and that would be terrific for the traveling public.

The other thought is that it’s not a foregone conclusion that the airlines, or very many of them, actually need government assistance, for all that airline management would like to have such bailouts.  Recall the Panic of 2008, wherein three auto companies of the American auto industry, supposedly needed government bailouts. GM and Chrysler jumped on those bailouts with both feet. Ford, though, despite pressure to take the bailout, refused to take the money; it said it would stand on its own feet (it did take a credit line against a potential need, but it never did tap even that).  Ford is thriving today, even playing a leading role in producing badly needed medical equipment.

So it will be for competently managed airlines centered in the US.

It Depends

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The Wall Street Journal‘s editors are stewing about the Wuhan Virus relief bill that just passed the Senate. To an extent, the WSJ is justified in its concern; $2 trillion isn’t chump change (the editorial was written before the Senate voted the bill up, so details at the link might differ from Senate-passed reality). Couple things about the paper’s concern, though.

The bill includes $250 billion for $1,200 payments to Americans whether or not they’re affected by the virus. The cash will do little or nothing to help an economy closed by government fiat.

All Americans have been, and remain, economically affected by the virus and the government-mandated shutdown of our economy; the $1,200 isn’t for medical treatment. The rub here is whether the money arrives in individuals’ pocketbooks soon enough to do them any good in the immediate exigency. The Senate version of the bill (the Progressive-Democrat House won’t take the bill until today, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) is making noises like she’s in no hurry, and she still has roadblocks to throw down) promises the money as soon as possible, but in any case, no later than 31 December.

Assuming the money arrives soon enough, the editors’ concern about helping the economy seems overstated. Whether the money does anything for “an economy closed by government fiat” depends on the duration of the fiat. President Donald Trump has set an aspirational goal of “open by Easter,” but realization or further delay will depend on the medical facts extant at the time—facts that, contrary to journalistic and Party rhetorical implications, are constantly updated and considered.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi managed to earmark $25 million for, er, virus relief for Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

That is pork, and it’s a harbinger of the roadblocks to come now that the bill is in Pelosi’s House. On the one hand, though, no less a light than Congressman Jerry Nadler (D, NY) has identified the center as symbolic of New York City and so, of course, a Critical Item. On another hand, those $25 million are 0.00125% of the total bill; if Pelosi and Nadler really will rent themselves so cheaply, it’s not a deal worth blowing up national relief for. Thursday night hookers might be, relatively, more expensive.

Finally,

Journalists will need weeks to cull through the pages and figure out what it all really means.

So will honest Americans and our businessmen. [/snark]

Progressive-Democrats and their…Preferences

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has buried another item in her 1,400+ page demand list of “relief” supports that she is requiring in quid pro quo for her support for the Senate Wuhan Virus relief bill that her minions in the Senate are actively blocking: $35 million for operations and maintenance for New York’s JFK Center for the Performing Arts. Pelosi’s bill would provide funding for

…employee compensation and benefits, grants, contracts, payments for rent or utilities, fees for artists or performers….

Notice that: Pelosi is actively denying the same relief for average Americans and the small, medium, large businesses that employ them unless she can have her Precious Ones subsidized—by those same out-of-work employees and closed-down small and medium-sized businesses, especially, who must pay the taxes for Pelosi’s demands.

Your Progressive-Democratic Party in action—not working for anyone’s benefit but their own.

Progressive-Democrats and Crises

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We’re seeing their execution of Rahm Emanuel’s theory in spades these days.  The Republican-majority Senate has a proposal in the Senate, agreed in bipartisan fashion with Progressive-Democrat Senators that would aid average Americans and the small, medium, and large businesses—including our farmers and ranchers—weather the government-mandated shutdown of our economy in response to the present Wuhan Virus situation.

The bill would provide loans to businesses to help tide them over the current loss of revenue—many of the loans converted to grants if the businesses retain their employees on the payrolls.

The bill would provide payments of some few thousands of dollars directly to Americans now on lockdowns of varying degrees but that prevent the majority of them from going to work at all, so those individual Americans and their families can stay reasonably current on their ongoing bills.

The bill would facilitate production of badly needed medical supplies, both for the protection of medical personnel and first responders and for the support of hospitalized patients in the care of those medical personnel.

Like I said, these were bipartisanly agreed provisions.  Now those Progressive-Democrats in the Senate have welched on their agreements to these provisions. Now they’re actively—and as a Party—blocking cloture votes so the bill can’t even go to the floor for debate and an up-or-down vote.

Those Progressive-Democrats, having gotten their marching orders from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA)—imagine that: even Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY) has surrendered his Senate authority to Pelosi—who has decided she needs

  • to expand and make permanent unemployment provisions (which would trap the unemployed in the Progressive-Democrats’ welfare cage)
  • anti-carbon provisions added in
  • collective bargaining measures be added in
  • fuel emissions to be imposed on airlines
  • expansion of subsidies for wind and solar energy

None of these have anything to do with the COVID-19 situation and the associated government-mandated economy shutdown.

Progressive-Democrats’ behavior here is just naked blackmail and the holding of American citizens and our economy hostage for the Progressive-Democrats’ personal and ideological profit.

Remember this all up and down the ballot in November.

More Obstructionism

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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.