Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed back on Democratic calls to provide aid to states in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill amid reports that President Donald Trump plans to use the funds to pressure states into reopening.
Congressional leaders and the White House are negotiating a bill that would provide more than $300 billion in additional funding for the coronavirus small business relief fund, which ran out of money last week as big corporations used the program’s “confusing” guidelines to score tens of millions for themselves.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNN on Sunday that the deal is also expected to include $50 billion for another small business program, $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing.
The deal has been delayed after Democrats also pushed to include $150 billion in funding for states and local governments quickly running out of money as expenses rise while tax revenue plummets. But McConnell told Senate Republicans during a conference call with Trump and Mnuchin that the aid “would not be in the package,” Axios reported.
“The thinking among some Trump administration officials is that many states should be reopening their governments soon and that additional funding could deter them from doing so,” according to the report. Politico similarly reported that the White House has been “holding out because, in part, they believe if Congress keeps cutting checks for state and local governments, they will be disincentivized to open up their economies.”
The delay comes as Trump backs astroturf-style protests, many of them organized or promoted by deep-pocketed groups backing the president, urging states to reopen — against his own administration’s guidelines.
Governors, including Republicans, have been desperately pleading for federal aid as they seek to avert disastrous cuts to education and health care to make up for the dramatic revenue shortfalls.
“It’s important for the feds to support our efforts to fund the stuff we do,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, told CBS News on Sunday. “If we’re laying off tens of thousands of people at exactly the time when they want to reopen the economy, we’re going to be swimming against the current they’re trying to create.”
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, the Republican chairman of the National Governors Association, called for $500 billion in aid to states in a joint statement with Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“In the absence of unrestricted fiscal support of at least $500 billion from the federal government, states will have to confront the prospect of significant reductions to critically important services all across this country, hampering public health, the economic recovery and — in turn — our collective effort to get people back to work,” the governors warned.
These are not hypothetical future budget cuts. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Sunday that the city will have to furlough workers. More than 100 cities in Texas have pleaded for funding to avert similar moves. Missouri lawmakers are expected to approve steep cuts when they return later this month. Ohio cities are facing calamitous budget shortfalls.
“Nearly every American city is seeing a precipitous drop in revenue,” the United States Conference of Mayors warned on Saturday. “Without federal support, many will be forced to lay off employees and make cuts that will hurt public safety.”
Rather than give governors, a majority of whom are Republican, the funding they need to avert disaster, the Trump administration and Senate Republicans “have decided on a strategy of extortion,” wrote Washington Post columnist Paul Waldman. “It’ll lead to more infections, more deaths, and a longer recession? Too bad. It’s what Trump wants, and that’s all that matters.”
Don’t expect Trump to accept blame for any consequences though. The Wall Street Journal reported that the president has “asked White House aides for economic response plans that would allow him to take credit for successes while offering enough flexibility to assign fault for any failures to others.”
As states face dire financial straits with no end in sight, governors may be forced to acquiesce to Trump’s demands just to keep the lights on, only to face blowback if things go south.
“Faced with the desperation of a disintegrating revenue base and spiraling needs for social spending, governors may be forced to risk the health of their citizens and try to gamble that they can restart the economy,” warned New York Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait. “The certainty of an unsolvable fiscal crisis, requiring massive cuts to education and health care, may outweigh the risk of a new outbreak. If the economy blossoms, Trump gets the credit. If the recovery sputters because people remain afraid to leave their homes, or if they do leave their homes and thousands of them die, then the governors who made the decisions get the blame.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.