Tag Archives: COVID relief

national news

Well, Mitch? What about ‘need’?

1 Comment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am not a particularly avid fan of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist from Vermont, the independent who pretends to be a Democrat.

However, grouchy ol’ Bernie has posted a message on Facebook that I must share here. I cannot express the outrage over Sen. Mitch McConnell’s duplicity any better.

Take it away, Bernie:

All of a sudden Mitch McConnell is “worried” that someone in America might get a $2,000 check “who doesn’t need it.”
Funny. He had no problem giving a $1.4 billion tax break to Charles Koch and his family with a net worth of $113 billion.
He had no problem giving a $560 million tax break to Sheldon Adelson, the casino tycoon who is worth $34.3 billion.
He had no problem giving a $104 million tax refund to Amazon over the past three years combined after it made $30 billion in profits.
He had no problem giving a $1 trillion tax break to the top one percent and profitable corporations.
Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs. They have lost their incomes. They have depleted their life savings. They are going hungry.
And they are scared to death that they will be evicted from their homes.
I say to Senator McConnell: Start worrying about the people in this country who are hurting and not just your billionaire campaign contributors.
Stop blocking legislation from coming to the floor which would provide a $2,000 direct payment that the working class of this country desperately needs.
Let the Senate vote, Mitch!
national news

How does GOP stand for this?

(Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This question demands an answer.

How in the name of good government do congressional Republicans and party members across the board justify their allegiance to a president who knifed them in the back over a COVID relief bill that he eventually signed into law?

Donald Trump called the COVID package a “disgrace” after GOP members of Congress joined their Democratic colleagues in embracing a bill that Trump’s team helped negotiate.

Then the POTUS tossed them all under that big ol’ bus and threatened to veto it. He said the relief bill doesn’t give enough money to Americans; he blasted it for the “waste” it contains that he wants removed.

Where in the hell was he during the negotiations? Don’t answer that. I know where he was. He was on the golf course and was using his Twitter account to blast the FBI and the Justice Department for allegedly conspiring to “rig” the 2020 election against him.

Trump took no active part in any element of this wheeling and dealing. He sat on the sidelines and then rammed the knife deeply into the back of his GOP “friends” and “allies” by describing the bill they endorsed is the worst piece of legislation ever enacted … or words to that effect.

And yet …

The GOP remains loyal to this clown? The party leaders in both congressional chambers won’t condemn him in the strongest language they can muster up?

Republicans in Congress will not go along with the $2,000 payment that Trump insists on giving out. Sure, it’s more generous than the $600 payments that have been approved — and now signed by Trump.

Still, it boggles my noodle to understand the point of all these machinations by a guy with no knowledge of the legislative process or understanding of how government works.

What’s more, my brain is trying to comprehend how the folks who do know these things — particularly those on the Republican side of the great divide — continue to support this clown’s feckless and futile bid to overturn a democratically run presidential election.

Go … figure, man!

national news

Trump backs down … or does he?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump wanted more money for Americans suffering from the pandemic. He also wanted to get rid of wasteful spending in a bill his team negotiated with Congress.

He threatened to veto the whole thing. Then — wouldn’t you just know it? — Donald Trump changed his mind and signed the bill into law.

Merry belated Christmas, Americans. We’re going to get that $600 per person payout that Trump said was too little; he wants us to get 2 grand apiece. He also wants to get rid of waste in the bill. Except that it’s still in the legislation he signed into law.

Good news is out there. The government won’t shut down. Unemployment benefits will be restored. I guess we should be grateful for all of that. And I am.

I circle back to a fundamental question: Why in the world did POTUS subject us to this chaos, uncertainty, anxiety, misery? His team was a partner with Congress in coming up with the bill. He said he would support it. Then he changed his mind. Now he has changed his mind again.

Trump is making demands on Congress to produce a fresh bill that excludes items he has “red lined” item by item that he wants taken out. We’ll have to see how well Congress reacts to the demands being placed by the leader of the other co-equal government branch.

My head is spinning.

national news

Trump goes ballistic … but why now?

1 Comment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Do I have this right?

Didn’t the White House negotiate with congressional leaders on the nuts and bolts of a COVID-19 relief package and spending bill? Did they act with Donald Trump’s imprimatur? Or didn’t they?

And where was Donald Trump his own self during all of this back and forth over the course of several months?

Didn’t Trump say once or maybe twice that he would sign the bill when it arrived at his desk?

So, what the hell is happening now? Trump says Congress needs to clean up the legislation, provide $2,000 payments per person and get rid of unnecessary add-ons before he would sign it.

At one level, I don’t really disagree with what Trump wants. I do disagree, though, with the timing of it and the appearance of his demand. His negotiating team hammered out the particulars and now Trump says he opposed to it.

His refusal to sign it now puts the whole process in dire peril. He is threatening to shut down the government. Folks who need the help won’t get it. The COVID pandemic is raging on and on. Trump is doing nothing to speak to the issues relating to the virus.

What the hell is going on? Chaos, anyone?