Covid relief just passed -- here's what's in it
Ryan Grim
Mar 6
Today, the Senate passed its Covid relief bill, sending it back to the
House, which is expected to pass it Tuesday, and it'll be signed into law by
Biden before the week is out. Checks could be in your bank accounts before
the end of the month.
Yet only the Democratic Party can put together a $1.9 trillion relief
package and manage to get on the wrong side of public opinion for being too
cheap. Yet that's where we've arrived after two months of debating the
party's stimulus, with centrist Democrats chipping away at the benefit
structure by phasing out individual checks at a faster rate, and pushing to
shrink unemployment benefits, as well as shorten the length of time extra
benefits are paid out.
That's on top of the political mess created by Democrats who continued
promising $2,000 checks even after the first $600 had gone out to people in
December and January. That left people believing what they were told - that
another $2,000 was on its way. And then they topped it off by adding a $15
minimum wage to the package, with no intention to fight for it if the Senate
parliamentarian ruled it was out of order, which she did. As a result, more
than a trillion dollars from the rest of the package -- and even the details
of the check -- have gone largely under the radar.
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But the sense of disappointment may be blunted by other elements of the
legislation that have gotten much less attention. Democrats haven't been
messaging about what's in much of the bill, and Republicans have instead
focused their ire on the estate of the late Dr. Seuss and on Mr. and Mrs.
Potato Head, who will now live under the single brand name of Potato Head.
(Mr. and Mrs. Head, contrary to Republican hysteria, have in fact retained
their respective genders. Only the umbrella brand name was tweaked.)
The fluke in how the current policy was crafted -- in fits and starts,
spanning two administrations, two special elections, and a Senate takeover
-- gave an unlikely boost to the left wing of the party when it came to the
checks. For the past year, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey have been
arguing that adults and their children and other dependents should be
getting the same amount of relief money. In the CARES Act last March, adult
dependents were cut out entirely, and while adults got $1,200, dependents
got $500. That meant a family of four banked a check for $3,400.
When Sanders and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., successfully argued for inclusion
of $600 checks into the December relief package, the figure was small enough
that Sanders was able to win the argument to equalize adults and dependents.
Everybody would get a flat $600, meaning a family of four would get $2,400.
But then-President Donald Trump, having sat out the negotiations, signaled
he would veto the package unless the figure was bumped to $2,000 and an
assault on Big Tech was added to the bill.
In the House, congressional progressives, led by Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., quickly introduced an amendment to meet Trump's
$2,000, increasing the payments to $1,400. The current legislation, which
adopted the amendment, kept the formula the same, equalizing payments
between adults and children. That means, if the new bill is enacted, a
family of four will be on the receiving end of a one-time check worth
$5,600.
The money doesn't stop there. A new child tax credit, which will be
implemented for just one year, but which Democrats aim to extend, offers
$3,600 for every child under six, and $3,000 for every non-adult child above
that age. The aim is to have the IRS send out a check each month to families
making less than $150,000. (So that family of four above, if both kids are
under six, would get $600 each month if the IRS can administer the system
effectively. If the kids are older, it would be $500 each month.)
The unemployment benefits deal reached today is something of a wash.
Democrats lowered the extra weekly payment from $400 to $300, but extended
it from August to September and added in a provision forgiving taxes on UI,
which is retroactive.
The bill also includes billions in new subsidies for health care coverage,
going to both Obamacare plans and COBRA; a bailout of the child care
industry; $50 billion for broadband upgrades; and billions toward full
vaccination.
In the House, progressive Democrats are still fighting over the tightened
eligibility for relief checks, and resisting efforts to limit unemployment
benefits, but so far there's been no serious threat to block the package
without the final set of demands being met. And Sanders himself is sending
signals that he's comfortable with where it's headed. Asked Thursday about
Biden's tightened eligibility requirements for relief checks, he told CNN:
"I think the main point is that we are doing something that is reasonably
consistent with what we have done in the past."
Ahead of the effort to pass a stimulus in 2009, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
told President Barack Obama there was "no fucking way" anything with a T
could get through Congress. This package is nearly three times the size of
the one Obama pushed through. For more on what's in it, listen to this
week's episode of Deconstructed.
I wrote earlier this week on the ballad of Andrew Cuomo and Tish James, a
story arc as rare as it is satisfying.
ANDREW CUOMO IS LIVING TO REGRET THE DEAL HE PUSHED ON LETITIA JAMES
IN 2003, Letitia "Tish" James shook the New York Democratic political
establishment, becoming the first City Council candidate to win office
solely as a nominee of the Working Families Party. James spent the next 15
years as an outspoken, independent-minded progressive and a leading voice
for the city's social movements. In 2013, despite being vastly outspent, she
won a tight race for New York City public advocate, a stepping stone to
mayor.
Her close alliance with the city's grassroots was considered by political
observers to be both a benefit and an obstacle. She had people behind her,
but she didn't have money - and moving to the next level required lots of
it.
When New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was forced to resign amid a
#MeToo scandal in 2018, James was quickly discussed as a potential
successor. But could she raise the funds?
That's where Andrew Cuomo came in. The state's governor, who was seeking his
third term, was in the midst of a long-running feud with the organization
that was so intimately linked with James's rise, the WFP. Under pressure
from Cuomo, local unions had left the party, taking their clout and
financing with them. In April 2018, the WFP came for the king, endorsing
activist and actor Cynthia Nixon for the Democratic primary over Cuomo, who
vowed to destroy the organization. Cuomo had long treated figures in New
York politics - his playground - like kids to be bullied. He turned his
attention to James.
In May, Cuomo made James an excruciating offer: He would endorse her and
open his donor network to her, but it would come at a price. Not only would
she have to endorse him, but she would also have to publicly refuse the
support of the WFP. Ripped from the pages of a cliched mafia screenplay,
James would have to prove her loyalty by executing her longtime ally.
Cuomo made James an excruciating offer: He would endorse her and open his
donor network to her, but it would come at a price.
James was left with two bad options: Accepting Cuomo's offer was the most
likely route to winning the election, but it would come with accusations
that she had traded in her trademark independence and social justice values.
Rejecting it could cost her the election and make Cuomo into a fatal enemy.
James took the deal. The WFP endorsed her anyway, against her public will,
while jointly endorsing Zephyr Teachout. The bulk of its spending went
toward opposing the most right-leaning candidate, Sean Patrick Maloney, who
represents a congressional district upstate.
In the fictional version of these parables, a deal with the devil always
ends the same way: The devil always gets his due. But New York politics is
not a parable. The story's new plot twist conforms more closely to a Disney
version: Cuomo is getting his due of a different kind, with scrutiny over
his failed coronavirus response and an investigation into sexual harassment
claims. His fate now rests with Tish James.