2021-03-11

m_d_h: (Default)
2021-03-11 05:16 am
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more "COVID Relief" is on the way

There's a good description of what the bill contains over at Wikipedia.

If I were dictator there are pieces of it I would remove for being poorly targeted, and I'd increase taxes to fully pay for it.  But not even Democrats bother to increase taxes anymore.  We're just gonna keep borrowing trillions until the bond market breaks.

Poorly targeted --> sending $1,400 checks to every adult or child regardless of need, temporarily expanding the child tax credit to $3,000 per child regardless of need.  These lump sums go to people/families whether they've remained fully employed or not.  Instead, we could focus this kind of cash on the people and children who live below the poverty line.  I've heard people say the combination of these two benefits will reduce child poverty by half this year.  If we'd focused the benefit specifically to reduce poverty, we could've eliminated child poverty this year.  But -- it's also just a one-time lump sum, not an ongoing program to eliminate poverty.  Child poverty will then double back next year.

Enjoy your one year of not being poor, half of you!

There's $350 billion for state & local governments, regardless of whether these governments actually need the help.  Although some states saw tax revenues decline during the recession, others did not, so this is like the checks to every adult -- poorly targeted.  Instead, how about revenue replacement aid -- a grant matching the amount by which state or local revenue declined from 2019 to 2020 (but adjusted downward for any tax cuts the state or local government enacted for 2020).



There are also some pieces that have nothing to do with COVID, they're just thrown in because Congress is spending a lot of money anyway.  It's easier to hide $100 billion of favors to special interests when you're already spending $2 trillion.  Such as $86 billion to bail out underfunded private sector pension funds -- instead of forcing the private sector to keep its own pension promises.

And $4 billion in debt forgiveness for "socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers", which apparently means POC farmers and ranchers -- I would never condition federal relief on the basis of skin color like this, we should help economically needy people with universal safety nets.  If a farmer or rancher needs help under some definition, then help, don't give extra help to POC -- this is the sort of thing Team Trump will use to convince white farmers and ranchers that Democrats hate them.  I would not be surprised if white farmers sue for similar relief, and I'd be on their side.
m_d_h: (Default)
2021-03-11 10:31 am

Biden: WTO Powers, Activate

The Biden Administration vetoed an effort by the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive certain health care patents during the COVID Pandemic.  Such a waiver would allow poor countries to manufacture their own vaccines, medicines, and equipment for treating COVID patients instead of having to purchase, license, or beg for these things from the EU, UK, and US.

Intellectual property rights are more important than saving poor people's lives during a pandemic, y'all!

Separately the Biden Administration announced that it will make sure all US residents have received a COVID vaccine before we ship any to poor countries.  The World Health Organization responded that it isn't fair for the US to give vaccines to healthy young adults in the US while seniors in poor countries are dying.

Turns out Biden wants to put America First just like Trump did, eh?  I've argued previously that nationalism is just as bad as racism, but that bit of wokeness hasn't caught on yet with Democrats.  Democrats are far more concerned with making sure there's "equity" within the US than across international borders.
m_d_h: (Default)
2021-03-11 07:15 pm
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more and more but not me yet

I keep hearing from more and more people that they've got their shots or have appointments to get their shots.  But here in Montgomery County, MD, I'm not yet eligible to sign up yet.

I cooked dinner this evening, it turned out great, but while we were eating T was suddenly typing furiously on his phone.  OK, whatever, so I started looking at stuff on my phone also.  Then he suddenly put his phone down and announced that DC was accepting vaccine "pre-registration" for federal employees who work in DC.  He said there will be an allotment of shots set aside for feds at some point.  Well, I wasn't going to pre-register during dinner, like he'd just done.  But after dinner I did.  And then I texted the info to all the people I regularly text who are feds & work in DC.

Tomorrow I'll send an email to everybody in my division with the info.

It's just pre-registration, not an appointment.  It puts me on a list, similar to the list I'm automatically on via my HMO.  When they have enough shots and it is my turn, they'll let me know.

Today I heard from a pal who is younger than me that he just got his appointment for a first shot, and I have no idea how he qualified, but I felt it would be impolite to ask, perhaps he has a health condition he hasn't disclosed to me.  He lives in Virginia, so their criteria are different.  The criteria are different in every state in the US, and sometimes differ from county to county or site to site.

64 million have received at least their first shot so far.