Like me, you are probably sitting at home trying to navigate another dreary day of confinement. It gives us a chance to obsessively consume media while we try to figure out what happened to our safe, predictable lives. This is a very bad time for businesses, but it’s a great opportunity for a shameless COVID-19 power play from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is probably hedging her bets that she will be the one calling the shots if hapless Joe Biden gets lucky.
The pair has something in common. Pelosi doesn’t always make sense, either:
And, again, you also have to – people have to know you. And that’s what I think is – with these two candidates, people knew them best. One had run before, and Joe Biden had been Vice President, you know, and all of his credentials; that knowing people is helpful as well.1
That’s pretty frightening considering the speaker is third in line to the presidency. Her push to force Congress to spend trillions we don’t have is pretty frightening, too. She is absolutely shameless when it comes to using this pandemic to put her party’s 2020 platform in place months before the election. The cost to taxpayers is astronomical, but the speaker is shrewd enough to know that fear and panic make almost any offer of salvation acceptable to the public.
That includes a Joe Biden presidency.
Black Death brought economic upheaval
Are Democrats studying history?
Wikimedia Commons. *
Who does Pelosi’s COVID-19 power play work best for? Pelosi and Biden.
At the beginning of March we were warned by Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries that “Our Job is to Protect the Health and Well-Being of the American People With the Fierce Urgency of Now.”2
There is no doubt about the urgency. Where is the ferocity directed? Taxpayers are the ones taking the hit from bill after bill to spend billions and trillions we will have to pay back.
There is no possibility this will end well for the American people, especially in states run by Democrats that were destitute long before this virus arrived.
Spend urgently now, explain away later
Pelosi was already talking CARES2 before Trump’s signature was dry on the first COVID-19 rescue bill:
It is imperative that we go bigger and further assisting small business, to go longer in unemployment benefits and provide additional resources to process UI claims and to give families additional direct payments.3
Any small business owners reading this who have applied for assistance know there is a tremendous gap between congressional credit-taking and reality. Applying is fast. Making good on the promise is many weeks away or at least that’s been my company’s experience so far.
Whether we need all this help depends on when businesses reopen and how much benefit there is to politicians who stall the process. It’s not to the Democratic Party’s advantage and certainly not Pelosi’s for state shutdowns to end soon. The longer and more protracted this economic collapse, the better party candidates will be positioned later this year.
Assuming we get lucky and this pandemic eventually becomes a slow burn, can we repair the economic impact of Capitol Hill’s generosity and Pelosi’s “bigger and further” price to enact Biden’s campaign platform?
Is that an unforgivably cynical question? The speaker makes it clear who gets credit for the bailouts when she spouts the anti-corporate party line:
Congressional Democrats transformed the CARES Act from corporations-first to workers-first, ensuring that taxpayer dollars given to industry go to workers’ paychecks and benefits, not be used for CEO bonuses, stock buybacks or dividends.4
Our money shouldn’t be used to benefit the Democratic Party either, but that’s where we’re at. With a little help from Chuck Schumer, Pelosi plans to spend until we get what she wants: more power and Democratic control over America’s recovery.
Pelosi’s power play is shameful
When the president discarded Acting Defense Department Inspector General Fine, Pelosi accused him of trying to “exercise ultimate control over independent Inspectors General.”5 Then she said this:
The President’s violation of oversight appears to be a reaction to Congressional Democrats transforming the CARES Act from corporations-focused to workers-first, requiring that taxpayer dollars given to industry go to workers’ paychecks and benefits, not be used for CEO bonuses, stock buybacks or dividends.6
Ignoring the speaker’s disregard for her own attempt to wrest ultimate control from Trump, this kind of divisive campaign speak does absolutely nothing to help the working Americans Pelosi claims to care about who work for the same businesses she wants to control. It’s a shameless, inexcusable calculation that the same rhetoric that worked so well for Barack Hussein Obama will arouse the public’s anti-corporate anger and pay off at the ballot box:
But each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people’s doubts grow.7
Obama was correct about our doubts regarding selfish gain. This is all about manipulating public opinion for an election year power grab. How else do you justify accusing our president of being responsible for American deaths in the midst of a crisis and threatening a new investigation after an embarrassing impeachment failure that just ended two months ago?
Mark my words. Come this fall, every Democratic Party campaign will feature pictures of our friends and neighbors in body bags with a little ticker running up the numbers. That’s where this is headed. It’s not where it will end. We can’t see the end yet. We’re not even close.
The big question is whether the people are paying enough attention to raise doubts about racking up trillions in debt to tackle a problem Congress and Democratic state governors have yet to admit the slightest responsibility for.
Debt is something we have to pay back
What we owed before COVID-19
With all that’s happening it’s easy to forget where we left off at the end of 2019:
Federal debt held by the public at the end of 2019 was $16.8 trillion—or 79 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—an amount far greater than the average debt for the past 50 years. CBO projects that if current laws generally remained unchanged, that debt would increase to $31.4 trillion, or 98 percent of GDP, by 2030.8
With intragovernmental holdings added to the tab taxpayers were $23.7 trillion in the hole before China’s COVID-19 problem arrived.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, gross domestic product this quarter could drop by as much as 7%. More than 1 in 10 Americans could be jobless.9 Last week’s unemployment claims topped six and a half million.
So what do we do with less coming in?
We spend more. A lot more.
H.R. 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act passed March 18, 2020 added $192 billion to the federal deficit. We don’t have cost figures yet for H.R. 748, the CARES Act the president signed on March 27, 2020 or for H.R. 6074, the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020 that goes back to March 6.
Confused? We’re not finished.
On April 8, 75 Democrats and no Republicans cosponsored H.R. 6467, the Coronavirus Community Relief Act. That bill would allow cities and municipalities with less than 500,000 residents to directly access $250 billion in federal funds. The same day this was proposed Pelosi and Schumer talked about a $500 billion follow-up to their last batch of outlays.
Losing track yet?
According to Roll Call Republicans ran into trouble on April 9 when they tried to add to the small business fund without spending another $250 billion for states and hospitals.10 This is how a power play works. Agree with us or the people suffer, including the small business owners who turned off the lights weeks ago and will find out, as my company did, that there is no such thing as rapid federal assistance.
Liberal bribery won’t fix anything
It is inexcusable to spend with abandon now in hopes of winning the power to tax away trillions later. Will Pelosi’s House argue that fewer wealthy Americans died during the pandemic so they should pay more? It’s hard to imagine that anything is off limits. When you’ve already blamed the president for dead Americans, what’s left?
What Democrats won’t admit about necessary short-term federal solicitude is that when the crisis abates the funding will not. The student loan payment suspensions, Work Study for no work, child care, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, enhanced unemployment insurance checks, mortgage relief, and all the other provisions tucked into these bills are what Democrats have wanted for years and what Biden will push for in his bid to replace Trump. Don’t expect anything to be cancelled. Instead, we will continue to add to the public debt with the same threats to working and middle class security Democrats have used since the Great Recession to justify liberal giveaways that bring in votes.
As always, the joke is on taxpayers like you and me. Not only are we weighed down with more debt, we’re incurring more to hand Democrats more power as Pelosi and her party use COVID-19 to put Sleepy Joe’s 2020 platform in place early. In the event that he actually wins this election, who will really be in charge? Power plays aren’t about altruism no matter what we’re hearing.
Is the Democratic Party America’s largest employer?
On April 9 Senate Democrats said no to additional small business funding as they teeter between supporting small companies and sticking to their ridiculous notion that what’s good for business is not good for workers.
Does the Democratic Party aspire to be America’s largest employer of people who aren’t working, courtesy of taxpayers? This is a rob Peter, pay Paul scenario but it seems to be what they want.
That’s not to say that a helping hand isn’t necessary because of our economic shutdown, but let’s be clear about one thing. $1,200 checks to almost everyone are a wasteful, attention-getting bribe. Those of us who are still working don’t need a $1,200 check. Everyone at my company is working, albeit from home. So is everyone I know. Nothing has changed except where we are sitting and the opportunity to be more productive because we can work in solitude.
Not all Social Security recipients need a $1,200 check either, though it did give Democrats another chance to pat themselves on the back:
I am thankful that the Trump Administration heeded our calls and reversed this backward directive and that our seniors will now receive their $1,200 without any further action required,” said Congressman [Tim] Ryan.11
Detractors are few. Even Republicans bought into the first round of spending because they didn’t have a choice. The country is in full social and economic meltdown because of a failure to prepare for this very predictable pandemic catastrophe.
The money needs to flow to those truly in need in states where businesses were forcibly shut down. It needs to arrive quickly. That means a lot of people who don’t need it are going to get it anyway. As Rep. Mark Green points out, there simply isn’t time to do this right:
We must remember massive bailouts are never the answer. We could—and should—have done better. For example, instead of giving almost everyone a check, we should have worked instead through existing government programs to better help those who are truly in need. After all, every $1,200 to someone who doesn’t need it is $1,200 not spent fighting coronavirus.12
As bills are passed to spend trillions, we should remember what the speaker said about the Affordable Care Act. We need to pass it to know what’s in it.
Buck and Mooney warn about consequences
Congressman Green is not the only one on Capitol Hill who is less than agreeable to creating more unsustainable debt. It took a lot of courage for Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) to warn:
Unfortunately, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act will harm our future generations in ways that the coronavirus never could — by drastically increasing our national debt by stuffing this bill with pork.13
West Virginia Republican Alex Mooney agreed:
Because this legislation adds at least $2 trillion to the already $23 trillion U.S. national debt, Congress needs to focus on paying off our country’s debt and balancing our budget going forward. Taxpayers already face interest payments annually of about a half a trillion dollars on our national debt. America will now be forced to borrow more money from countries like China and Russia or print more money which devalues our currency.14
That’s not quite what we’re hearing from a Capitol Hill mainstream that seems to be betting on the payoff for a national mea culpa if we can spend enough to pacify the public. Even the Republican House Ways and Means Committee issued a surprising self-congratulatory note after the CARES Act was passed:
The CARES Act provides financial support through a one-time check for American workers to help them as our country continues its work to defeat the novel coronavirus.15
Let’s be clear about that, too. These one-time checks are not financial support. They are a down payment for a tab that, like the virus, will grow exponentially and never go away in our lifetimes.
Mitch McConnell called the CARES Act a “historic relief package.”16 He is correct on a number of levels and they are not all good. California Democratic Rep. Alan Lowenthal hinted at the biggest problem:
The bipartisan CARES Act makes an important down payment on needed economic relief for Americans and their families, especially in California.17
The next few bills will also be progress payments and they will keep coming because COVID-19 created a perfect election year storm. If Pelosi has her way, Democrats will get all the credit while every single American death will rest squarely on Donald Trump’s head.
What happened to Campaign 2020? COVD-19 is about more, not less.
Don’t forget where the Democratic Party left off not that many weeks ago. Medicare for All. Student loan forgiveness. A Green New Deal. Every one of these items is on the list of Joe Biden campaign promises.
If anyone believes this is all going to go away because we already spent trillions on a pandemic, wake up. The demands to spend more money will skyrocket because on top of the Obama-era recession that Democrats claim never went away for working families we now have what could well be the worst thing to ever happen to this country.
If you don’t look out for yourself Democrats will
Presumptive Democratic nominee Biden is already taking credit for his leadership during the coronavirus crisis.18 His plan is perfectly congruent with Pelosi’s spend with abandon strategy:
Biden believes we must spend whatever it takes, without delay, to meet public health needs and deal with the mounting economic consequences.19
He adds a caveat that this response should not “blame others or bail out corporations.”20
So we let corporations rot and kiss the jobs they create goodbye. That’s a stupid, naive, agenda-laden take on what our economy faces. Are pharmaceutical companies working 24/7 to find a cure on Biden’s anti-bailout list, too?
Perhaps the former Vice President consulted with the speaker. For Pelosi this is all about blaming her party’s blacklist. She has already blamed the president for American deaths during the pandemic. Not only are Democrats eager to make Trump pay, they don’t want him to take the same credit they are happy to accept and claim he is the only one politicizing this crisis:
It is highly inappropriate to use these relief payments as a campaign tool,” said Congressman Boyle. “These payments should get to Americans without any delay.21
This national tragedy will be all about who was prepared, who was not, and why. State governments expecting a massive federal infusion because they were unprepared will let themselves off the hook and raise taxes. Congressional Democrats will blame the White House because they never drew up a workable plan. Taxpayers will be punished. We pay the bills. Government generates nothing. Meanwhile, we need to make sure we are ready as individuals for whatever happens whether that means job loss, a recession, or a biological apocalypse.
Some of us aren’t ready for any of these things. We don’t even have health insurance. Whose fault is that?
Why don’t we have health insurance?
The Great Recession taught us an ugly lesson about having some money socked away for when life snarls at us. Did we listen?
Next to a runaway pandemic, few things have the potential to ruin your future like unpaid medical bills. The Affordable Care Act made those bills a certainty for too many Americans. Even with insurance the enormous deductibles that come with triple digit monthly premiums mean staying away from the doctor at all costs.
COVID-19 didn’t make health insurance more affordable, but Democrats are telling the nation another story. Despite the affordability problem they insist that the 74 million22 who don’t have adequate health insurance would buy it if they could. It’s just a matter of timing.
One hundred lawmakers sent a letter to HHS Secretary Azar asking for a new emergency enrollment period:
We write to urge you to establish a Special Enrollment Period to be applicable to all Affordable Care Act Marketplace coverage, including those using healthcare.gov as well as state-based marketplaces, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many among the close to 30 million Americans living without insurance[1] and estimated 44 million who are underinsured[2] would benefit from such a declaration.23
These statements are complete garbage but they’re good for a press release. Those who lose their jobs now will qualify for a special enrollment period but they likely can’t afford the cost. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirms what the real problem is:
As usual, critics of President Trump have been quick to blame the Administration’s healthcare policies for this increase. But a review of key facts suggests the rising uninsured rate stems largely from Obamacare’s failure to deliver affordable health insurance premiums and has created a new class of uninsured.24
There are two reasons Americans don’t have health insurance: they can’t afford it or they don’t want it. The first is the Democratic Party’s fault. Democrats are the ones who put “Affordable” in the title.
The second reason is personal choice. Health insurance is not supposed to be an opt-in, opt-out, freely available government benefit. That’s why Democrats who now want to make it exactly that set up enrollment periods when they passed their disastrous health care bill.
Besides, why would anyone enroll now when they know that COVID-19 bills for the uninsured and underinsured will be paid by the government? We have already appropriated $100 billion for health care providers that includes benefits for those without insurance.
How about your rainy day fund?
When we were kids most of us were taught about the ant and the grasshopper. Some of us paid attention. Others looked out the window.
Some of us fall on hard times through no fault of our own. That applies to the Americans newly unemployed because their states shut down their employers and have no plans for sending anyone back to work any time soon. The only solution offered to the newly jobless is to cower in the corners of their houses and stay six feet away from their own families for an indefinite and certainly very long period of time.
Our bad habits won’t make this better. Americans with crushing credit card debt, mortgages we can’t afford, and the other trappings of consumerism out of control should have paid more attention to the fable. Fortunately, now they can pay attention to American’s largest employer, national parent-in-chief, de facto SBA administrator, health care provider, and shadow president Nancy Pelosi even while she interferes with assistance to keep their employers in business.
When Senate Republicans proposed that we increase small business emergency funds by $250 billion to a total of $600 billion, Democrats said no. Pelosi’s reaction makes her sound like a Republican:
The coronavirus pandemic presents an existential threat to small businesses — and critical problems have emerged in the Small Business Administration’s relief programs that are endangering the survival of Main Streets across America. But while Democrats want to fix these issues in the interim relief package to prevent these small businesses from going under permanently, Senator McConnell’s bill does nothing for them at all.25
The fix means holding up broad-based assistance to businesses that helps the majority of workers in lieu of $50 billion for community-based lenders. If you’re looking for the real threat, look to the House speaker.
Liz Cheney (R-WY) summarized why we arrived at this impasse:
The American people deserve action now. Lives and our economy are on the line. It is indefensible that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer are blocking emergency aid in order to push a political agenda.26
Mitch McConnell nailed it in his statement about the most recent blockade of help for newly jobless Americans:
My colleagues must not treat working Americans as political hostages.27
When your goal is to manipulate a crisis to put yourself front and center that is precisely what you do.
Bravo, Madame Speaker. Bravo.
UPDATE April 14, 2020: lessons from the Black Death are not lost on Democrats
Will this Democratic Party vs. Trump standoff turn into another Civil War? Now we have six governors on the East Coast squaring off against the White House on reopening the economy. Illinois’ Governor JB Pritzker has announced similar intentions to go it his own way even though he has spent weeks blasting the White House for not being in control of the situation. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office has announced a three state “Western States Pact” for a “shared vision for reopening their economies and controlling COVID-19 in the future.”28
Black Death was a terrible opportunity
The Black Death completely reorganized European society and the economies of the nations devastated by the plague. Democrats have been pushing for economic upheaval for years. Now they are ready to seize this opportunity no one saw coming.
In her December 21, 2019 “Dear Colleague” end of the year recap, Speaker-to-be Pelosi promised:
When we return in the New Year, House Democrats will continue to accelerate a drumbeat to make our legislation “too hot to handle” until Senator McConnell, the Grim Reaper, takes up our bills, which are alive and well with the American people. As we do so, we will continue our legislative action For The People, with confidence in our mission to meet the needs of the American people, humility in how we go forward and patriotism and love in our hearts.29
Pelosi’s Grim Reaper arrived, but it’s not Mitch McConnell. There is no humility in her power play and no patriotism in the efforts to destroy our national unity that were foreshadowed by the House Democratic Caucus on December 17, 2019:
This week, we will move legislation on the Floor that restores some fairness to everyday Americans, to middle-class folks, to those who aspire to be part of the middle class by beginning the process of restoring the state and local tax deduction, which was stripped away to give a tax cut to the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected. That was unconscionable. But a House Democratic majority will begin to reverse the damage that was done by House Republicans in the last Congress.30
Months later Americans are dying and the House and Senate Democratic leadership is pulling out every trick in their playbook to divide the country and use these deaths as a political weapon while accusing Trump of doing the very same thing.
This morning Senate Democrats resurrected their ridiculous argument that Americans will pay for more unaffordable insurance if we open another enrollment period.
Senate Democrats see red: Join Us in the Fight
Under a bright red “Join Us in the Fight” headline, Senate Democrats cheered a letter sent to HHS Secretary Azar yesterday:
Finally, we are alarmed to learn of the Administration’s plan to use these essential funds as a political tool. Yet again, this Administration is putting politics before patients by letting its opposition to the Affordable Care Act stand in the way of obvious solutions to expand coverage, such as opening a special enrollment period on the Federal marketplace and taking steps to facilitate Medicaid expansion in states that have not done so.31
Also this morning, Pelosi tried to take credit for Mitch McConnell’s additional $250 billion in small business relief in a duplicitous press release that fails to mention her power play to make sure the money never leaves Washington unless her demands are met:
As part of the bipartisan CARES Act that Democrats transformed from a corporate trickle-down plan to a bubble-up, workers-first bill, the Federal Reserve recently announced its new “Main Street” lending facility. This facility will support up to $600 billion in bank lending to small and mid-sized businesses, including two lending options: new loans of $1 million to $25 million, or expansion of a business’s existing loan with a bank to up to $150 million.32
COVID-19 does not have to be the economic upheaval that divides and destroys the greatest economy the world has ever known for the sake of a Democratic election year power grab. This is not the Black Death, but Pelosi and her colleagues will do everything in their power to ensure this is the death of the U.S. economy so they can pin it on Donald Trump, the only person who is offering hope for a way out.
UPDATE May 11, 2020: shameless Nancy’s two best shameful remarks from last week
Last week was another tough one but at least we know that we can always count on Speaker Pelosi to toss out some zingers to keep things fun and interesting. It should be pretty apparent from two of her best that Ms. Pelosi’s shamelessness knows no bounds and has no limits even when she’s not talking about COVID-19.
On the dropped charges against Michael Flynn:
Attorney General Barr’s politicization of justice knows no bounds.33
Perhaps in the heat of spending trillions of our money she forgot about impeaching the president, the Russia investigation, and the certain-to-be-coming Democratic tribunal over our coronavirus strategy.
On the White House Title IX revisions and how “Democrats will not stand silently:”
The Trump Administration’s final rule is callous, cruel and dangerous, threatening to silence survivors and endanger vulnerable students in the middle of a public health crisis.34
Presumably Tara Reade is not one of those silenced survivors because what she alleges happened was long before the pandemic got started. As far as Democrats not standing silently, would hearing them say they stand behind Biden as if the allegations didn’t exist make it better?
I didn’t think so.
UPATE May 16, 2020: “heroes and patriots” don’t include Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi blasted the president yesterday for dismissing an Obama-era holdover from the post of State Department Inspector General. Frankly, the incoming Trump administration could have done a much better job of cleaning house the moment the president set foot in the White House. Better late than never, I suppose.
Nevertheless, the deed is done. Mr. Linick is gone. Pelosi squeezed out a quick press release on the very same day she led her House to a chorus of yeas that agreed to dump another $3 trillion on taxpayer’s heads. She took another shameless jab at the president:
The President’s late-night, weekend firing of the State Department Inspector General has accelerated his dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people. 35
Then she said this:
It is concerning that the President has taken this action as the House passes The Heroes Act, which contains critical funding for the State Department IG to oversee and ensure the effective, wise spending of coronavirus response
funds.36
Despite the deceptive “Heroes” moniker, there is nothing heroic or patriotic about what the House did yesterday. Nancy Pelosi continues her hypocritical, self-interested quest to dump as much debt as possible on America’s taxpayers so her party can take credit now and wreak vengeance on the wealthy later.
Anyone reading this whose income falls into the hated millionaire and billionaire class targeted by Pelosi’s party better start making plans in case things go south in November. Democrats don’t view you as heroes, but your incomes will go to bailing out whatever heroes they choose whether than means state public pensions, the marijuana industry, or the arts and humanities.
Sources
1 “Transcript of Pelosi Weekly Press Conference Today. ” Nancy Pelosi. March 5, 2020. https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/transcript-of-pelosi-weekly-press-conference-today-54, retrieved April 10, 2020.
2“Chairman Jeffries on Coronavirus: “Our Job is to Protect the Health and Well-Being of the American People With the Fierce Urgency of Now.” House Democrats. March 3, 2020. https://www.dems.gov/newsroom/press-releases/chairman-jeffries-on-coronavirus-our-job-is-to-protect-the-health-and-well-being-of-the-american-people-with-the-fierce-urgency-of-now, retrieved April 5, 2020.
3“Pelosi Statement on Next Steps on Coronavirus Response.” Nancy Pelosi. April 3, 2020. https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-statement-on-next-steps-on-coronavirus-response, retrieved April 5, 2020.
4 “Pelosi Statement on Appointment of Acting Defense Department Inspector General as Head of CARES Act Oversight Body.” Nancy Pelosi. March 30, 2020. https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/33020-0, retrieved April 11, 2020.
5“Pelosi Statement on Sudden Removal of Head of CARES Act Oversight.” Nancy Pelosi. April 7, 2020. https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-statement-on-sudden-removal-of-head-of-cares-act-oversight, retrieved April 9, 2020.
6Ibid.
7“Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address.” The White House. President Barack Obama. January 27, 2010. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-state-union-address, retrieved April 9, 2020.
8“Federal Debt: A Primer.” Congressional Budget Office. https://www.cbo.gov/, retrieved March 30, 2020.
9“Updating CBO’s Economic Forecast to Account for the Pandemic.” Congressional Budget Office. April 2, 2020. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56314, retrieved April 7, 2020.
10Saksa, Jim and Lerman, David. “No deal on fresh coronavirus aid package.” Roll Call. April 9, 2020. https://rollcall.com/2020/04/09/senate-blocks-small-business-aid-bill/, retrieved April 10, 2020.
11“After Congressman Tim Ryan’s Urging, Trump Administration Reverses Order and Will Now Allow Social Security Recipients Who Don’t File Taxes to Receive Checks Automatically.” Tim Ryan. April 1, 2020. https://timryan.house.gov/media/press-releases/after-congressman-tim-ryan-s-urging-trump-administration-reverses-order-and, retrieved April 10, 2020.
12“Statement on Coronavirus Relief to Americans.” Dr. Mark Green. March 27, 2020. https://markgreen.house.gov/2020/3/rep-green-votes-to-deliver-coronavirus-relief-to-americans, retrieved April 5, 2020.
13“Rep. Buck Opposes $2 Trillion CARES Act.” Ken Buck. March 27, 2020. https://buck.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-buck-opposes-2-trillion-cares-act, retrieved March 30, 2020. https://timryan.house.gov/media/press-releases/after-congressman-tim-ryan-s-urging-trump-administration-reverses-order-and, retrieved April 3, 2020.
14“Congressman Alex X. Mooney Statement on Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.” Alex Mooney. March 27, 2020. https://mooney.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-alex-x-mooney-statement-coronavirus-aid-relief-and-economic, retrieved April 3, 2020.
15“CARES Act: Coronavirus Relief Check Questions.” Committee on Ways and Means. April 2, 2020. https://gop-waysandmeans.house.gov/cares-act-coronavirus-relief-check-questions-answered/, retrieved April 3, 2020.
16“Senator McConnell Applauds Senate Passage of the CARES Act; Will Rush Assistance To American Workers, Families, Small Businesses, And Health Care Providers.” Mitch McConnell. March 26, 2020. https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/
public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=01155CCB-99EB-4E6D-A2A0-08935B4948DA, retrieved April 7, 2020.
17“Congressman Lowenthal Statement On Passage Of $2 Trillion Stimulus Bill In Response To Coronavirus Crisis.” Alan Lowenthal. March 27, 2020. https://lowenthal.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-lowenthal-statement-passage-2-trillion-stimulus-bill-response, retrieved April 2, 2020.
18“Joe’s Leadership During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Biden President. https://joebiden.com/covid19-leadership/, retrieved April 11, 2020.
19“The Biden Plan to Combat Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Prepare for Future Global Health Threats.” Biden President. https://joebiden.com/covid19/, retrieved April l11, 2020.
20Ibid.
21“Boyle Leads Effort to Prevent Trump Politicizing Stimulus Checks.” Brendan Boyle. April 1, 2020. https://boyle.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/boyle-leads-effort-prevent-trump-politicizing-stimulus-checks, retrieved April 11, 2020.
22“Rep Lieu and 100 Lawmakers Call for Emergency Healthcare Open Enrollment During Coronavirus Pandemic.” Ted Lieu. March 13, 2020. https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-lieu-and-100-lawmakers-call-emergency-healthcare-open-enrollment, retrieved April 3, 2020.
23Ibid.
24Verma, Seema. “Thank Obamacare for the Rise of the Uninsured.” CMS.gov. September 13, 2019. https://www.cms.gov/blog/thank-obamacare-rise-uninsured, retrieved April 4, 2020.
25“Critical Small Business Needs Ignored in McConnell Bill.” Nancy Pelosi. April 10, 2020. https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/41020, retrieved April 11, 2020.
26“Congresswoman Liz Cheney Newsletter: March 23 Coronavirus Update.” Liz Cheney. March 23, 2020. https://cheney.house.gov/2020/
03/23/congresswoman-liz-cheney-newsletter-march-23-coronavirus-update/, retrieved April 11, 2020.
27“McConnell Seeks More Funding for Americans’ Paychecks: “We Cannot Play Games With This Crisis.” Mitch McConnell. April 9, 2020. https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/
index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=F267D02E-DBD1-48A5-B25E-ACE8176CFE53, retrieved April 11, 2020.
28“California, Oregon & Washington Announce Western States Pact.” Gavin Newsom. April 13, 2020. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/04/13/california-oregon-washington-announce-western-states-pact/, retrieved April 14, 2020.
29“Dear Colleague on Legislative Progress.” Nancy Pelosi. December 21, 2019. https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/122119, retrieved April 14, 2020.
30“Chairman Jeffries: “This Week Alone Shows the Difference Between the Democratic Majority in the House and a Republican Majority.” House Democrats. December 17, 2019. https://www.dems.gov/newsroom/press-releases/chairman-jeffries-this-week-alone-shows-the-difference-between-the-democratic-majority-in-the-house-and-a-republican-majority, retrieved April 14, 2019.
31“In New Letter to Sec. Azar, Sens. Schumer, Murray, And Wyden Call On Trump Admin To Quickly Allocate CARES Act Funds To Hardest-Hit Frontline Health Care Providers, Stop Using Emergency Dollars As A Political Tool.” Senate Democrats. April 14, 2020. https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/
press-releases/in-new-letter-to-sec-azar-sens-schumer-murray-and-wyden-call-on-trump-admin-to-quickly-allocate-cares-act-funds-to-hardest-hit-frontline-health-care-providers-stop-using-emergency-dollars-as-a-political-tool, retrieved April 14, 2020.
32“Dear Colleague on Urging Federal Reserve to Include Nonprofits and Universities in CARES Act Lending Facilities.” Nancy Pelosi. April 14, 2020. https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/41420, retrieved April 14, 2020.
33“Pelosi Statement on Attorney General Barr Dropping Case Against Michael Flynn.” Nancy Pelosi. May 7, 2020. https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-statement-on-attorney-general-barr-dropping-case-against-michael-flynn, retrieved May 11, 2020.
34“Pelosi Statement on Trump Administration’s Rule Dismantling Title IX Protections for Students and Survivors.” Speaker.gov. May 6, 2020. https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/5620, retrieved May 11, 2020.
35“Pelosi Statement on Late-Night Firing of State Department Inspector General.” Nancy Pelosi. May 15, 2020. https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/51520-2, retrieved May 16, 2020.
36Ibid.
*Wikimedia Commons image added April 14, 2020. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Black_death_XV.jpg, retrieved April 13, 2020.
Author’s note: content edited after original publish date of April 11, 2020.
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