Our View | $380M: It’s a Lot, but a Little

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Question:

When is $380 million not very much money?

Answer:

When it’s the only money allocated for COVID-19 relief out of a 591-page, $1.9-trillion COVID-19 relief bill.

That’s right

Less than 20% of the money in this bill that Congress is about to pass has anything to do with COVID-19 relief.

More than $1.8 trillion of your and our tax dollars goes to pork, special-interest projects and wasteful spending.

Now, please understand, we are all for helping American people and workers who are hurting because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Millions of workers are out of work and thousands of businesses are still closed and we need help. The government caused this problem by forcing business to close and demanding people stay at home, so the government should help to fix it, but this bill is a political favorite payback list, not COVID-19 relief. We are not even saying that all the items in this bill are unneeded or unwarranted, but they should not be included in a rescue package for Americans who have been devastated by the pandemic. There is still $1 trillion unspent out of the prior $3.9 trillion already passed in the first two relief bills, the first one for $900 million and the second for $3 trillion.

This bill includes:

$1.5 million for a bridge from New York to Canada.

$120 million for a train tunnel in the Silicon Valley that already has $250 million allocated and has not started construction yet.

$1 billion for socially disadvantaged farmers, including a commission to distribute funds for racial justice in farming.

$50 million in environmental grants.

$112 million in California transit projects.

$750 million for global health.

$350 billion for bailouts of states that mismanaged their retirement plans.

$500 million for museums and the arts.

$40 billion in grants for higher education, even though these institutions charge admission.

$130 billion for K-12 school funding, with the money being allocated through 2024, the funds to be used for ventilation systems for asthma and not for COVID-19 relief.

This bill also contains the expansion of Obamacare subsidies and the raising of the minimum wage increase nationally to $15 per hour, which will kill 1.4 million jobs, although it’s unclear if this will stay in the bill as the parliamentarian ruled Friday this violates the rules.

There is more, but you get the picture.

We want, we urge, Congress to approve COVID-19 relief.

This bill is too little — much too little — to really help the American people.

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