Why Republicans’ virus relief bill would be bad for Florida

President Trump repeatedly rails against “Do-Nothing Democrats.” Do-Nothing Republicans, however, caused this week’s scramble to meet the deadline for a new COVID-19 relief bill.

Trump signed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in late March. Afterward, Republicans who control the Senate resumed business as usual. They concentrated on confirming right-wing judges and did little else.

Meanwhile, Democrats who control the House started work on that second COVID-19 bill. Their tortuously named HEROES (Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions) Act passed on May 15. It would cost $3 trillion. Even that increase wasn’t enough for 14 ultraliberal Democrats, who voted against it.

Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the legislation “an unserious product from an unserious majority.” McConnell, Trump and other Republicans saw the May and June jobs numbers and hoped that Congress wouldn’t need to spend more.

In fact, that May report miscounted almost five million Americans as being employed when they were not. Then came the nationwide surge in cases from too many states – Florida at the head of this dubious class – reopening too soon and too fecklessly.

The next COVID-19 storm arrives Friday. The $600-per-week supplemental unemployment benefits in the CARES Act stop. In Florida, they actually stopped last Saturday. Protections against evictions and foreclosures also expire this month.

Like homeowners boarding up after the winds rise, Republicans have been frantic and disorganized. Trump wasted time asking for a useless payroll tax cut. McConnell said that a new bill would take “a few weeks” until he realized how uncaring that sounded in an election year – when he’s on the ballot.

McConnell’s product, however, is underwhelming at best and a joke at worst.

Republicans want to cut that unemployment supplement to $200 per week. Sen. Rick Scott and others claim that the extra money has discouraged people from returning to work.

University of Chicago economists did find that about two-thirds of unemployed workers made more with the extra $600.

But according to Yahoo Money, 70 percent of those who returned to work in May did so even though they had made more while laid off.

Worse, the GOP endgame is a new system that would cap benefits at 70 percent of a person’s former wage. Each state would have to reprogram its unemployment system. Florida’s crashed simply from the rush of new claims. As governor, Scott signed the bill that made Florida one of the worst states for unemployed workers.

Democrats want to give states and local governments $1 billion to deal with COVID-19 budget emergencies. There’s no money in the Senate bill.

Republicans included $105 billion for education, $70 billion of it for K-12 schools. The GOP would tie roughly two-thirds of that money to schools that reopen classrooms.

Consider the timing of this reckless strong-arming.

Teacher unions already have made clear their concerns about safety. On Monday, though, came news reports that the number of children in Florida diagnosed with COVID-19 increased 34 percent between July 16 and July 24. Hospitalizations of children are up 23 percent.

Finally, Republicans would offer no money to illegal immigrants, who perform many jobs deemed essential, such as those at meatpacking plants. The HEROES Act would extend $1,200 stimulus checks to those workers and make them retroactively eligible for money under the CARES Act.

McConnell complained in May that the Democrats had included non-COVID items, such as help for the cannabis industry. He’s right about the need to focus the legislation, but his party sets a bad example.

The CARES Act included a tax break for real estate developers that could benefit Trump and First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner. The GOP demanded it.

Now, at the insistence of the White House, Republicans included in their bill $1.75 billion for a new FBI headquarters in Washington near Trump’s hotel. McConnell at first denied that this item was in the bill.

A functioning Congress could work this out. Example: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might give McConnell some of the liability protection he wants in exchange for some of the money she wants.

But this should have been happening weeks ago. Instead, Republicans waited while Trump said the virus would “disappear.” That was unserious behavior from an unserious majority.