Stimulus & Bailout Watch Thread

[Winehole23]

The USG's poverty guidelines are not fit for purpose. So are expansive claims about the degree of poverty "eliminated" by the ARA.

[boutons_deux]

Ted Cruz Accuses Democrats of Trying to Cancel Poverty




WASHINGTON —Calling the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan “a fever dream of the cancel-culture crew,”

Senator Ted Cruz accused Democrats of a “politically correct plot to cancel poverty.”

“Poverty has been a part of American life since this country was founded, in 1776, but that apparently means nothing to the Democrat Cancel Culture Gang,” Cruz said.

“In their intolerant view, poverty is somehow no longer appropriate.”

He warned that, far from being Democrats’ ultimate goal, “cancelling poverty is just the beginning.”

“If you read the fine print,

they also want to cancel hunger and homelessness,” he said.

“And, if you’re used to living without health insurance, sorry—that’s yet another American tradition they want to cancel.”

“We should have seen this coming,” he added. “First they came for Mr. Potato Head.”

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/ted-cruz-accuses-democrats-of-trying-to-cancel-poverty

[boutons_deux]

How infrastructure could be the great economic equalizer in America

Since the mid-twentieth century, when most of this country's modern infrastructure systems were first established, the population has doubled. Not only are American roads, airports, electric grids, waterways, railways and more distinctly outdated,

but today's crucial telecommunications sector hasn't ever been subjected to a comprehensive broadband strategy.

Worse yet, what's known as America's "infrastructure gap" only continues to widen.

The cost of what we need but haven't done to modernize our infrastructure has expanded to $5.6 trillion over the last 20 years ($3 trillion in the last decade alone),

Some estimates now even run as high as $7 trillion.

"The nation's economy could see the loss of $10 trillion in GDP [gross domestic product] and a decline of more than $23 trillion in business productivity ulatively over the next two decades if current investment trends continue."

the overall number of dams with potential high-hazard status had already climbed to nearly 15,500.

At the time, the organization also discovered that nearly four out of every 10 bridges in America were 50 years old or more and identified 56,007 of them as already structurally deficient.

Janet Yellen stressed the crucial need not just for a Covid-19 stimulus relief but for a sustainable infrastructure one as well.

As part of what the Biden administration has labeled its "Build Back Better" agenda,

she underscored the "long-term structural problems in the U.S. economy that have resulted in inequality [and] slow productivity growth."

She also highlighted how a major new focus on clean-energy investments could make the economy more compe ive globally.

Biden noted to a group of senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee that,

"if we don't get moving, they are going to eat our lunch." He went on to say,

"They're investing billions of dollars dealing with a whole range of issues that relate to transportation, the environment, and a whole range of other things. We just have to step up."

Major trading partners like Australia, India, and Japan are projected to significantly out-invest the United States.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/inf...re-2651070109/

Repugs will try to block all Dem infrastructure,

only agreeing if their BigDonor class gets $Ts more in tax breaks,

tax breaks that defund infrastructure investment.

[Winehole23]

nationalized UI and automatic stabilizers

[boutons_deux]

[boutons_deux]

Business bankruptcies’ surprising decline amid pandemic: Is a ‘tidal wave’ coming?

filings nationwide have gone down.

The low level of bankruptcies

cuts against modern economic patterns and

has been one of the most perplexing trends from

a pandemic era that has seen many restaurants, retailers, and other small businesses close shop.

“I’m looking at debt figures, unemployment, the GDP numbers and, well, it’s just hard to come up with a coherent explanation of what I’m seeing,”

https://sanantonioreport.org/business-bankruptcies-down

[LaMarcus Bryant]

Ted Cruz Accuses Democrats of Trying to Cancel Poverty




WASHINGTON —Calling the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan “a fever dream of the cancel-culture crew,”

Senator Ted Cruz accused Democrats of a “politically correct plot to cancel poverty.”

“Poverty has been a part of American life since this country was founded, in 1776, but that apparently means nothing to the Democrat Cancel Culture Gang,” Cruz said.

“In their intolerant view, poverty is somehow no longer appropriate.”

He warned that, far from being Democrats’ ultimate goal, “cancelling poverty is just the beginning.”

“If you read the fine print,

they also want to cancel hunger and homelessness,” he said.

“And, if you’re used to living without health insurance, sorry—that’s yet another American tradition they want to cancel.”

“We should have seen this coming,” he added. “First they came for Mr. Potato Head.”

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/ted-cruz-accuses-democrats-of-trying-to-cancel-poverty

How does any politician get away with looking like that, jesus. Dude reeks of diabetes and armpit

[boutons_deux]

How does any politician get away with looking like that, jesus. Dude reeks of diabetes and armpit

6 more years, and I bet he'll be re-elected. It's ing hole TX

[Joseph Kony]

Ted Cruz Accuses Democrats of Trying to Cancel Poverty




WASHINGTON —Calling the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan “a fever dream of the cancel-culture crew,”

Senator Ted Cruz accused Democrats of a “politically correct plot to cancel poverty.”

“Poverty has been a part of American life since this country was founded, in 1776, but that apparently means nothing to the Democrat Cancel Culture Gang,” Cruz said.

“In their intolerant view, poverty is somehow no longer appropriate.”

He warned that, far from being Democrats’ ultimate goal, “cancelling poverty is just the beginning.”

“If you read the fine print,

they also want to cancel hunger and homelessness,” he said.

“And, if you’re used to living without health insurance, sorry—that’s yet another American tradition they want to cancel.”

“We should have seen this coming,” he added. “First they came for Mr. Potato Head.”

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/ted-cruz-accuses-democrats-of-trying-to-cancel-poverty

Lol this is funny because even though it's satire it's not far fetched at all to think this re would actually come out with this statement

[benefactor]

Got it

[spurraider21]

Got it

ditto

just got the direct deposit

<3 joint tax return with a non-working spouse

[Trill Clinton]

Glad to see people getting their checks! If you're not hurting for the money, invest and support small businesses.

[boutons_deux]

Lol this is funny because even though it's satire it's not far fetched at all to think this re would actually come out with this statement

the intelligence of Borowitz is that his satire is cleverly constructed on the actual people or situations.

and yes, given the bull from Cruz, him saying the above is plausible

about half of ST is too ing stupid to get satire

[Winehole23]

Overshot projections by 70,000.

Initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending March 13 increased by 45,000 compared to the previous week's revised figure to reach 770,000, the US Department of Labor reported on Thursday. The four-week moving average was 746,250, down by 16,000 compared to the prior week's revised average.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/...in-us/54955827

[Winehole23]

The Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday showed at least 4.1 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months, accounting for 41.5% of the unemployed population in February. Another 3.5 million have permanently lost their jobs.

[Winehole23]

...the economy remains down 9.5 million jobs from February 2020 and will require more than two years of job growth at February’s pace just to get back to pre-pandemic levels.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-...n-in-february/

[Winehole23]

by the old measure, U-6, we're still in recession

Measure	Not seasonally adjusted			Seasonally adjusted
Feb. 2020	Jan. 2021	Feb. 2021	Feb. 2020	Oct. 2020	Nov. 2020	Dec. 2020	Jan. 2021	Feb. 2021
U-1 Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force	1.3	3.4	3.6	1.2	3.8	3.6	3.4	3.4	3.5
U-2 Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force	1.9	4.8	4.4	1.6	4.8	4.7	4.5	4.4	4.1
U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate)	3.8	6.8	6.6	3.5	6.9	6.7	6.7	6.3	6.2
U-4 Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers	4.0	7.2	6.9	3.7	7.2	7.1	7.1	6.7	6.5
U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other persons marginally attached to the labor force, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force	4.7	8.0	7.7	4.3	8.0	7.9	7.9	7.4	7.3
U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force	7.4	12.0	11.6	7.0	12.1	12.0	11.7	11.1	11.1
NOTE: Persons marginally attached to the labor force are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm

[Trill Clinton]

Do ya'll think there will be another round of Stimulus checks in the future?

[Winehole23]

Do ya'll think there will be another round of Stimulus checks in the future?

Spitballing, I'd guess not. Depends on COVID.

Maybe some kind of rent/debt relief to prevent mass evictions when the putative moratorium ends on June 30, but it would be just like us to let millions of people fall through the cracks.

[Winehole23]

[boutons_deux]

Knees jerking on cue

Another Round of Right Wing Inflation Fear-mongering

wanted to remind people how wrong right-wingers have been for many, many years. Whatever else, they lack credibility.

Predictably, conservatives are once again warning about inflation.

This happens every time a Democrat takes office—

even if he merely continues the identical policies of his Republican predecessor.

https://ritholtz.com/2021/03/inflation-fearmongering

Predictions for 2021: 2.2%

[Winehole23]

The Texas rent relief program has only made three payments despite being online for over a month, according to a video shared with the Houston Chronicle.

“We’ve paid three payments which is better than none but is way too few,” Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs director Brooke Boston said on a Friday Zoom call. “We had some major system issues happen and so it’s really only been maybe, like, 14 days that we’ve been fully in our new system.”

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...a-16039430.php

[Winehole23]

“This is a $1 billion rental assistance program that the State of Texas is standing up completely from scratch. While the funding will be extremely helpful to many thousands of Texans, it did not come with program guidelines or mechanisms for delivery,” Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs spokesperson Kristina Tirloni said in an email.


The Texas rent relief program opened Feb. 15. Tenants and landlords quickly complained about the program’s accessibility. Among the top issues: The website would not allow applicants to enter their phone numbers, no one answered the phone number provided and people could not check their application status.

[boutons_deux]

"While the funding will be extremely helpful to many thousands of Texans, it did not come with program guidelines or mechanisms for delivery,”

how bag Repugs MIS-govern hole Texas, typifies national bag Repugs

[boutons_deux]

How a federal agency excluded thousands of viable businesses from Biden relief plan

one box on the application for the Paycheck Protection Program money, which asked whether the company or any of its owners were "presently involved in any bankruptcy."

He was automatically rejected and lost about $25,000 in payroll and other costs that the program would have covered.

Thousands of people file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy every year — 282,628 did so in 2019 alone.

Although it's not clear how many of them own businesses, all of those individuals were barred from the PPP program,

along with the thousands of businesses currently working through a reorganization plan under Chapter 11 and the family farms that file under the lesser-known Chapter 12.

the SBA has stuck to its position that debtors in bankruptcy aren't en led to government aid.

https://www.rawstory.com/sba-relief-plan