Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote this opinion piece, which appeared in McClatchy newspapers across the country, including the Miami Herald.
Please open the link and read it in full.
Biden and Warren write:
Relief legislation passed by Congress provides critical support for hospitals, families, small businesses and local governments — efforts that will save lives and help cushion the economic blows of this pandemic.
As the price of their support for these measures, Trump and the Republicans insisted on a $500 billion slush fund for big businesses with minimal conditions — a fund Trump could use to reward his political friends and punish his political enemies. They also jammed in a tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits millionaires. This tax break will be particularly helpful to hedge funds and real estate investors like the president’s friends and family — on top of the $1 trillion in giveaways to the wealthy and big corporations Trump previously pushed through Congress. The administration has even allowed a fund meant for America’s small businesses to be used by wealthy, well-connected investors. The cost is more than simply tax dollars — Americans’ faith in government is undermined when the price of helping everyone else is more giveaways for those at the top.
The coronavirus rescue package imposed some oversight of these programs, but when he signed it, Trump said he’d ignore the law and prevent a new inspector general from communicating with Congress. He then appointed a White House loyalist to serve in that role. And just to be sure there was no real accountability, he fired another inspector general independently designated to oversee the bailout…
Trump seems to think he can direct funding for the response to this crisis based on which politicians are nice to him, which states he’s trying to win in November and which businesses he wants to enrich — all without any accountability. We have a different view.
Taxpayer relief should go to those most in need. Hospitals, essential workers, small businesses, and state and local governments should get the help they need immediately. If large corporations want help, they should agree not to turn around and fire all their workers. The relief bill’s unconscionable tax giveaway that overwhelmingly benefits millionaires should be repealed. But that is not enough.
They go on to write about barring conflicts of interest, noting that neither of them owns individual stocks as a matter of policy.
They warn about the power of lobbyists and the need for public disclosure of lobbying for special favors by big corporations.
And they call for strict oversight of the massive spending bills, including protection for Inspectors General and whistleblowers.
The corruption built into the coronavirus relief funds is appalling, and it is heartening to see Biden and Warren–both experienced pros on matters of oversight–insisting on transparency and regulation of this vast spending. It gives me hope that we might be able to get our country back, come November 2020.
Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/article242350451.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Airlines got a bailout and had a tax cut. Why is United now laying off 30% of their workforce? Because they can.
…………………….
Mon, May 4, 7:37 PM (12 hours ago)
Chicago Tribune
MAY 4, 2020
BREAKING NEWS
Planned jobs cuts represent 30% of United Airlines’ management and administrative employees
United Airlines is planning to eliminate more than 3,400 management and administrative positions this fall as the coronavirus pandemic devastates passenger air travel, and the airline’s hometown of Chicago could be especially hard-hit.
Corruption is built into many bills. In some cases lobbyists are actually writing legislation. We need clear, specific laws about the conduct of anyone in government. After our experience with this administration, we must revamp of code of conduct laws for elected officials. Democrats have been complicit in enabling most of the Republican bad behavior. Chuck Schumer was one of the people that put this package together, and all the Democrats except AOC voted for it. She understood that regular people were ignored and the bill is full of pork for the 1%.https://news.yahoo.com/aoc-only-democrat-vote-against-230354410.html
I have excoriated Sen. Sherrod Brown for his lack of spine on this issue and, as a long time supporter and (former) contributor, will continue to do so. The congressional response to this pandemic has codified Mitt Romney’s dictum that corporations are people.
And here’s a story that would be hilarious in normal times. The Idiot’s cult has proven that they are not pro-life, they are pro-genocide.
https://local12.com/news/local/ohio-republican-state-representative-i-will-not-wear-a-mask
Several prominent figures in the “I don’t care about the pandemic” have come down with the disease and a few have died. COVID doesn’t care whether you believe in it.
Greg,
A fine point. The Cult is pro-Unborn Life.
Once a baby is born, they no longer care whether he dies in a gun massacre or dies of an illness that was curable but the family couldn’t afford medical care.
I’m with you. Made the same observation in response to a “party of abortion” zealot a little while ago.
Chuck Schumer has caved in on some of the worst judicial appointments, and he and the DNC continue to meddle in senate primaries to thwart progressive candidates.
And therein lies the problem with the Establishment Democrats. Young adults are seeing right through this. If the Biden presidency becomes a 3rd Obama term, the GOP will come roaring back.
40+ years of neoliberalism has trashed FDR’s legacy. Continue on the Clinton/Obama path and the disillusioned working classes will continue to walk away.
Here’s a good read from The American Prospect: https://prospect.org/politics/power-to-the-person-chuck-schumer-democrat-senate-candidates/
I hope this article leads to Biden selecting Warren as vice-presidential nominee. It would be an olive branch to progressive voters who comprise about 40% of the party. In a recent poll Warren was the #1 choice of the potential VP candidates. Biden needs many Bernie supporters more than he needs black voters. He already has them.https://www.cbsnews.com/video/poll-elizabeth-warren-tops-democrats-list-for-vice-president/
You can hate the Dem establishment as much as you like.
Trump is a fascist. A second term for him will give him total control of the federal judiciary.
Please name the “worst judicial appointments” that Chuck Schumer caved in on.
What is true is that the worst judicial appointments happened because people would not vote for HRC and empowered Trump and the Republicans to decide on judicial appointments.
Unless you voted for HRC, then you are the one who caved in on the worst judicial appointments, not Schumer. Empowering Trump and the Republicans is why we have a far right federal judiciary.
If Chuck Schumer chose every judge and SC Justice, there would be an end to Citizens United and this country would already be 1,000,000 more progressive now and in the future.
But those who knew better helped prevent the Democrats from having that power and made sure the Republicans had that power instead.
If you don’t like the Trump/McConnell version of the federal judiciary, then you should not have voted to empower them to choose it. Looking for a scapegoat is shocking. The people to blame are Trump and those who didn’t do everything they could to help defeat him.
Democrats have been more than enabling the Republican bad behavior…they actively participate in it themselves. The GOP are greedy and mean. The Dems are greedy but “nice”, throwing a dry bone to the common man after taking the lion’s share. It’s a facade they have been using for years to pad their portfolios and support their lavish lifestyles. The common man has been too preoccupied to notice while trying to carve out the “American Dream”….. which is only a Libertarian lie because only those at the top of the pay scale (the 1%) get to live “the dream” and the rest are losers (99%). The whole lot of them need to be voted out to make room for “the new order” of Independent thinkers and doers.
Are you now accusing AOC of enabling Republican bad behavior? Sherrod Brown is evil? Bernie is bad for voting for the aid?
Let me ask you something? If your choice was to give rich people another 10 million each and not let poor people die, or not give rich people 10 million each and let poor people die, would you choose to let poor people die and praise the progressive politicians for their bravery in letting the most vulnerable poor people die to stand up to the Republicans?
Or would you attack them for letting poor people die?
Those choices are because some people insisted that having Trump was no big deal. These choices are because people believed there was no difference between the parties when there is an enormous difference. The Democrats are more progressive than Angela Merkel. Does that make Merkel and the Republicans the same? Of course not.
The response by Obama to pandemics was not how can I use this crisis to make my supporters as rich as they can get. The same response that Merkel had. The same response that the Republican Ohio Governor had, which makes him far more out of the mainstream Republican party than the most far left liberal is out the mainstream of the Democratic party.
Do you think the progressives in Germany wish that they could have a leader like Trump instead of a non-progressive, too business-friendly Angela Merkel? It’s hard to imagine anyone in America except the far right thinking that it would be so great if Merkel was replaced with a German version of Trump because there is no difference at all and they both only work for the 1%.
At some point, those comments are simply dishonest lies – just as dishonest as a fake (former) Bernie supporter who is really a right wing troll saying that Bernie Sanders is just as corrupt as Trump because he also made sure his inexperienced stepson was given a high paying job that he wasn’t qualified for.
It’s about time we had some perspective. No, Bernie is not as corrupt as Trump just because his stepson got a high paying job he was’t even remotely qualified for. Bernie is not as evil as the Republicans because he voted for the flawed virus package because Republicans have been empowered and now hold all the cards. But if Bernie was (or somehow becomes) the nominee, you will hear that kind of rhetoric non-stop until many Democrats believe that they either have to vote for a very corrupt and untrustworthy Bernie Sanders or just sit out the election.
Because when voters have fallen for the rhetoric that there is no difference and empower a Republican party whose mantra is that we don’t care how many people die as long as we can get power, that puts the Republican party at a huge bargaining advantage, which is why the Republicans can do so much more than the Democrats and Bernie.
Bernie knows that — which is why his real supporters (not the fair-weather ones who never really trusted Bernie anyway) agree with Bernie that the first action needed is to defeat the Republicans who have demonstrated that they don’t care how many Americans die as long as they get what they want. The fact that Democrats have to give in to them because they are unwilling to sacrifice vulnerable American lives should make people want to replace all Republicans with Democrats.
Right now, thanks to the empowering of the Republicans, the debate is about how many lives the Republicans will sacrifice to get what they want and whether the Democrats will sacrifice those lives to make a point or if Democrats will give in because they actually value the lives of the most vulnerable Americans,
With the empowerent of the Democrats, the debate can be what is the best way of governing that might help the most people. That is the only way that progressive legislation will ever happen.
Because there is no way that under Trump rule with a right wing judiciary that progressives will have any voice whatsoever. They will be able to speak up the way they can speak in Russia — risking their own lives.
@ NYCPSC……blah blah blah blah blah…. your same garbage ranting over and over again. Just letting you know that you can rant and rage all you want at me, but I will not respond or be baited by you. This is an open blog run out of someone’s home and I will NOT curse or attack others. I will NOT resort to calling people names just because they have a different political opinion than mine. You don’t know me, how I vote or how I live my life.
I leave it to the people reading your original comment, my reply, and your shocking reply to me to decide which one of us is ranting and attacking.
I will not curse or attack others. I suggest you reread your above reply calling me garbage and then read my genuine attempt to address some of the issues that you raised in your comment that concerned me.
“The Dems are greedy but “nice”, throwing a dry bone to the common man after taking the lion’s share. It’s a facade they have been using for years to pad their portfolios and support their lavish lifestyles.”
That’s what I thought about Carter when I said he was as evil as Reagan. I was wrong. But the number of progressive Democrats who got defeated in 1980 when the right wing Republicans took over the Senate and the presidency because of votes by naive people like me who were certain they knew it all has hurt many people. I helped empower Reagan and the right wing Republicans 40 years ago with my vote based on my absolute certainty — I was even more certain than you — that Jimmy Carter and the entire Democratic party was so corrupt it was fine to destroy it and empower right wing Republicans.
I cannot imagine why you would falsely imply I called you names. You used ugly words like “garbage”.
I’m not trying to “bait” you and it would have been inexcusable for me to claim that your original post in which you made false claims about the entire Democratic party was about “baiting” me.
You always try to shut me down and call me names instead of doing what I do when I disagree with you and trying to address the points you made that seem very wrong.
Why?
We had this debate 40 years ago when we soundly defeated the terrible and awful Jimmy Carter and many good progressive Democratic Senators and empowered the Republicans. I was on your side then, happy to condemn the evil and awful Democrats and evil and awful Carter as being in league with the forces of evil and corruption and just pretending to support non-evil things that would help people.
I can say with absolutely certainty that I was wrong to help spread false attacks on Jimmy Carter and help defeat him and many other progressive Senate Democrats in 1980. I wonder if you think I did the right thing by defeating those corrupt and evil Dems like Carter and all the good Democratic Senators who lost that year
^^Just to clarify, when I use the word “we”, I am referring to myself and other generic Americans back in 1980 who agreed with my pure hatred for the evil Jimmy Carter and the corrupt and awful Democrats in the Senate who I was absolutely positive deserved to be defeated by right wing Republicans due to their evilness. It is not referring to the writer of the post that sounds a lot like me in 1980 ranting against Jimmy Carter and the Democrats. If it sounds as if I am referring to the writer of the post to which I am replying to, then my apologies for my subpar and incoherent writing.
And once again the Unhinged One is out of moderation and I am in it. I have never addressed anyone as disrespectfully as she routinely does, yet I get censored for my inconvenient truths while she’s allowed to post rants and raves to her heart’s content.
I don’t expect this comment to ever see the light of day, but do please let NYCPSP know that, yes. readers of this blog do know who is ranting and attacking and who is not.
Dienne,
I am not posting anti-Biden comments.
The stakes are too high.
Post them somewhere else.
Not here.
“And once again the Unhinged One is out of moderation and I am in it. I have never addressed anyone as disrespectfully as she routinely does…”
Really?!
FYI, neither Dienne or NYCPSP is in moderation. Sometimes WordPress arbitrarily puts them there.
Dienne,
Neither you nor NYCPSP is in moderation.
WordPress arbitrarily puts commenters in moderation.
All of your comments have been approved except your rants against Biden, which I will consistently delete.
“The whole lot of them need to be voted out to make room for “the new order” of Independent thinkers and doers.”
Remember who is included in “the whole lot”. Progressives like AOC. African-American politicians who devoted their lives to expanding opportunities and fighting racist policies. That “whole lot of them” who need to be voted out are part of the most diverse group of Democrats in history.
I’m sorry I am not simply ignoring these kind of replies, but they remind me of the attacks on union teachers. “The whole lot” of them are bad, and the evil union protect the bad ones, and the whole lot of bad teachers need to go. There are certainly subpar union teachers but that does not mean that it is correct to demonize every union teacher because of the “bad” ones. It doesn’t mean that the way to make all teachers good is to vote out the evil union.
This is a question for Diane Ravitch,
I highly respect your opinion so I wanted to ask whether you also felt that I was “unhinged” in my replies to LisaM’s post about how Democrats (not some of them, not a few of them, but apparently all of “The greedy Dems”) are padding their portfolios to support their lavish lifestyles, ending with the sentence that “the whole lot of them” needed to be voted out.
When I read sweeping attacks on the entire Democratic party like that, I certainly do feel passionate, and my responses reflect that. There are some Democrats who should rightly be criticized, but it hurts the good Democrats to make sweeping attacks that demonize the entire party and all the politicians in it. But I believed that I had posted reasonable replies without using any ugly names or attacks.
So I find it really strange to be accused of posting inappropriately by the very people who called me “unhinged”, “ranting” and “garbage”.
I know my posts can be long and boring, but if you read my replies and find any place where I used ugly words like “unhinged”, “ranting”, “garbage” that LisaM and dienne77 directed at me, then please let me know as I certainly would apologize for them.
I disagree with many things that LisaM posts and even more with what dienne77 posts. So I post in response because I thought that debating those ideas is part of what this blog is about. But I never call them “unhinged” or use words like “garbage”.
And I have never once asked you to remove a post by dienne77 just because she called me “unhinged” and used other ugly words to attack me personally instead of simply addressing the points I made and pointing out why she believes I was wrong.
I really don’t understand why some voices on the left believe the way they can win is to demand the right to mischaracterize and make sweeping attacks on all Democrats and then use ugly language to try to silence anyone who challenges their sweeping assertion that all Democrats should be defeated because apparently there are no good ones in office.
Thank you.
I agree with reasoned debate.
Disagreement should be cordial —without name calling.
a key understanding: in some cases lobbyists are writing legislation. Big Money is controlling many disbursements, Trump and the legislators are only useful in opening money up to their managers.
Slight suggested correction: lobbyists are writing all legislation. Federal legislation is not initiated by congressional staff or their bosses. One of the most important civics lessons that needs to be taught, especially to adults of our generation, is that the Schoolhouse Rock explanation of civics is a bygone fantasy.
Please pass this information on to all your contacts:
If you want to see what Trump, McConnel and these predators want to do to us during this pandemic DO NOT MISS THIS: Article: “Crushing the States, Saving the Banks “
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Crushing-the-States-Savin-by-Ellen-Brown-Banks_Coronavirus_Credit_Economy-200504-567.html
WRITTEN BY: Ellen Brown who is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the best-selling WEB OF DEBT. Her websites are http://EllenBrown.com, http://PublicBankSolution.com, and http://PublicBankingInstitute.org.
A small take-away: “”It has long been a goal of conservatives to privatize public pensions, forcing seniors into the riskier stock market. Lured in by market booms, their savings can then be raided by the periodic busts of the “business cycle,” while the more savvy insiders collect the spoils.
Today political opportunists are using a crushing emergency that is devastating local economies to downsize the public sector and privatize everything. States are not legally allowed to declare bankruptcy, but *Sen. McConnell contended that “there’s no good reason for it not to be available.” *He said, “we’ll certainly insist that anything we borrow to send down to the states is not spent on solving problems that they created for themselves over the years with their pension programs.”
And that is evidently the real motive behind the bankruptcy push. McConnell wants states to put through a bankruptcy reorganization to get rid of all those pesky pension agreements and the unions that negotiated them.But these are the safety nets against old age for which teachers, nurses, police and firefighters have worked for 30 or 40 years. It’s their money.
Optimism is a fine and useful sentiment, as long as it is built on solid analysis
of the problem at hand.
JB “I don’t think 500 billionaires are the reason why we’re in trouble… The folks at the top aren’t bad guys.”
EW “I am a capitalist to my bones”
Never mind 40+ years of neoliberalism via winner take all capitalism,
TRUMP is the problem.
“Optimism is just a lack of information.” (“Optimismus ist nur ein Mangel an Information.”) — Heiner Müller, German playwright and intellectual
Never mind that Dwight D. Eisenhower and Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S. Truman were capitalists just like Herbert Hoover.
There is no difference! some people claim!
Jimmy Carter waas an evil meoliveral. In fact, evil Jimmy Carter was the FIRST neo-liberal and making sure Ronald Reagan defeated him and we got 8 years of Reaganism was such a great thing for the progressive movement!
So much better than having those “evil” capitalist presidents like J98mmy Carter, FDR, LBJ, HST, and Eisenhower and his j”capitalist” 90% marginal tax rate.
Maybe the real problem are those who still think that the way to a progressive nirvana started when the evil neocon/neoliberal Democrat Jimmy Carter was defeated by the guy who was JUST LIKE HIM – Ronald Reagan.
After all, Angela Merkel is just like Trump, right? She is a neocon/neoliberal who just refuses to attack capitalism as a pure evil and is just as evil as FDR and Jimmy Carter to the progressives who blame everyone but themselves for the rise of the far right.
I think people here are perhaps a little too quick to judge the actions of Democrats who have been around for awhile. Right now, we cannot afford to have long drawn out fights between Democrats and Republicans over relief funding. When your business is going under or you can’t pay your bills and/or provide the basic necessities, something is better than nothing. I can grumble that it is not enough, which the Democrats have made clear, but it will keep things going for a little while longer than if nothing was done. Refusing to pass any legislation that does not meet your exact criteria appears high minded, but it can also be be rather short-sighted. AOC could afford to vote no because she knew the votes were there to pass the relief. Her objections are important over the long term in trying to change the narrative; they are strategic. Would her constituents appreciate her coming home with nothing for them? I doubt it. Bottom line is if you don’t have the votes, refusing to compromise is foolish. Everything has to get past not only the House and Senate but Trump, too.
Well-said.
Democrats have a choice — let the most vulnerable Americans simply die, or help them while rewarding the rich.
Republicans are terrorists and they don’t care about the lives they hold hostage. That is a sacrifice they are willing to make.
The problem is that it is easy to negotiate with terrorists as long as you are also willing to sacrifice the hostage’s lives. You are correct that AOC could make an excellent point knowing that she would not be sacrificing hostages. But if it came down to her one vote, she would probably vote for the package – while condemning it – because she values human lives,
The answer is not to “stand up” and let more of the vulnerable Americans die as some people now criticizing the Democrats are saying they should have done because those lives were a small price to pay.
The answer is to defeat politicians from the party that is willing to let Americans die and replace them with politicians from the party that is not willing to let the most vulnerable Americans die.
Bernie Sanders knows this and so do all of his real supporters. AOC would have voted for relief if she was the one necessary vote because she would have recognized that Republicans were terrorists willing to sacrifice their hostages. AOC gets it.
Which is why she is voting for Biden and not trying to trash him (and lie about him) as no different than the Republicans. Because AOC doesn’t tell lies. Although clearly there are a few who are now accusing her and Bernie Sanders of being untrustworthy liars who should not be listened to since Bernie doesn’t agree with them that Trump is a danger to democracy. Actually, I think those people who don’t trust Bernie now also don’t trust democracy.
I’m sure they all have some conspiracy as to the DNC secretly making sure AOC won in order to fool the public into believing that there is a real democracy when they are certain that the DNC controls the mind of every voter in a democratic primary.