Bipartisan US “relief” bill stiffs workers and unemployed, gives billions more to business
Late Sunday night, congressional leaders from both parties signaled their acceptance of a roughly $900 billion coronavirus relief bill that includes generous handouts to large companies while leaving jobless workers and their families with crumbs. The bill is expected to pass both the House and Senate by Monday afternoon and be attached to a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill. President Donald Trump has signaled his intention to sign the bill into law.
The package, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called a “strong shot in the arm,” does nowhere near enough to make whole the over 10 million people who have lost their jobs since March and the millions whose hours or wages have been reduced.
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Republican Senate should get off its ass and help hurting people December 18, 2020 9:50 AM CDT By Mark Gruenberg
Trump s man in the Senate, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, continues to sit on desperately needed coronavirus aid. PW Washington Correspondent Mark Gruenberg writes that it s time for GOP Senators to move before the economic situation becomes even more dire. | Evan Vucci / AP
Almost 14 million jobless people will lose their aid checks on Dec. 26.
Twelve million renters could get eviction hearing notices, or evictions, that day.
Top Senate Republican: CCP Virus Stimulus Package ‘Gets Done Today’
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a member of the GOP leadership in the Senate, expressed optimism that the Senate will reach a stimulus relief package deal at the end of Sunday.
“This gets done today. No more delays. We’re not leaving until we have relief for the American people,” Barrasso, the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, told “Fox News Sunday.”
His remarks came as House and Senate leaders said a deal is nearing. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) reached an agreement on Saturday night.
Our national security is extraordinarily vulnerable, Romney said on SiriusXM s The Big Picture with Olivier Knox. In this setting, not to have the White House aggressively speaking out and protesting and taking punitive action is really, really quite extraordinary.
Hackers believed to be part of a nation state have had access to federal networks since March after exploiting a vulnerability in updates to IT group SolarWinds’s Orion software. The hack has compromised the Treasury, State and Homeland Security departments and branches of the Pentagon, though it is expected to get worse. SolarWinds counts many more federal agencies as customers, along with the majority of U.S. Fortune 500 companies.