As they work to pass a bill to address the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19—and the efforts to contain it—Congress and the White House must achieve two urgent tasks. The first is to provide the tools necessary to get the public health crisis under control. The second is to offer economic relief to workers, families, small businesses, and others. Millions are facing a sudden and, in some cases, complete drop in their income as a result of the measures states, cities, and the country as a whole have taken in service of the public health response.
The Senate Republican bill fails to meet this moment. It is ambitious in providing bailouts to large corporations but does nothing to protect workers at the firms being rescued. It hands out corporate tax cuts from wish lists crafted long before this crisis began. In fact, the bill includes provisions that effectively deepen the corporate tax breaks that were provided in the 2017 law signed by President Trump—even providing some retroactive tax cuts that are essentially unrelated to the crisis at hand.
But the bill falls far short in addressing the immediate and acute pain that is being felt by many of the workers, families, and communities being hit hardest by the COVID-19 virus. It entirely ignores the means we have at the ready to directly support workers who have been laid off or seen their income drop to zero. It neglects families who are struggling to get food on the table in an uncertain time. And it fails communities that are being stretched to the brink to address health and economic crises simultaneously. Where it does provide relief to families and individuals in need, it provides too little, and cruelly leaves out or provides less to those who are likely to face the greatest strain. Continue reading.