Pelosi’s Poison ‘Relief’ Bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is happy to play rank politics with the federal coronavirus response. Exhibit A is the absurd $3 trillion “relief ” bill she’s set for floor vote on Friday.

It’s the first emergency bill written by one party with zero input from the other. Some Dems say it’s just an “opening bid,” but why waste time crafting 1,800 pages of legislation full of poison pills for the opposition?

It seems Pelosi thinks virtue-signaling to her base is worth the trouble.

The bill is packed with junk that has nothing to do with the pandemic or the economic chaos the response to it has created. It would, for example, end the cap on state and local tax deductions enacted in the 2017 tax reform, putting more money in the hands of the rich in high-tax states.

It also has no-way-Republicans-will-agree provisions on abortion, immigration and other hot-button issues irrelevant to the crisis.

And crisis-related stuff that fails the sniff test: Businesses across the country have said they’re finding it harder to hire in some industries because the added $600 a week in unemployment means some people are paid more to stay home than to work. The Democrats’ bill would extend that extra payout all the way through January. It also aims to turn the Paycheck Protection Program into a boondoggle by letting beneficiaries spend the cash on non-payroll expenses.

Congress has already passed four coronavirus-related bills, with unclear impact. And now much of the nation is starting to reopen; it’s too soon to say how fast various state economies will rebound.

Let’s not make the young, already hard-hit by the economic devastation, face further government debt without being sure the money will be well spent — or is even needed.