>> Congress is slated to pass a new Coronavirus relief package after negotiations have
ended with something that both chambers of Congress appear to agree on. Now, I wanna be clear
that regardless of what a headline say regarding $908 billion in new coronavirus relief spending.
The fact of the matter is that the way the legislation has been written indicates that about
$429 billion of unused money from the Cares Act will be repurposed as part of this relief package.
Which means that in terms of the relief package portion of this bill about $479 billion is new
funding for relief. Now, give you those numbers because it's important to know what Congress has
signed on for. And unfortunately, no reporter has seen the entirety of the language in this bill.
Unfortunately, most members of Congress haven't seen the entirety of the language
in the bill. They've just received the bill and it's about 5,000 pages long
according to what Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says.
And they're being pressured to vote in favor of it within hours. And so here's what we know so far.
We know that it's tied to the $1.4 trillion Omnibus spending bill for the fiscal year
that began in October of this year. And so when you look at the final number, it's about
$2.3 trillion. Now, what does it include? The relief portion of this, what does it include?
Well, let's start off with the stimulus checks. As we know, Republican lawmakers fought pretty
aggressively against providing direct checks to Americans. But now according to what we know the
legislation includes $600 stimulus checks per person, including adults and children. That
means a family of four would receive about $2,400 up to a certain income threshold.
So this money will in fact, be means tested.
The amount of money a person receives in these direct checks will start to
decrease starting at $75,000 in the 2019 tax year, depending on their income of course.
Anyone who earned more than $99,000 in 2019 will get absolutely nothing in terms of a direct check.
Now, the unemployment benefits are also
included in this relief package and they've been paired down even more,
which is incredibly disappointing. Congress will extend unemployment benefits of up to $300
per week. The benefit would kick in as early as December 27th and run at least through March 14th.
That means that Congress is providing only 11 weeks of unemployment. Remember that they
originally were considering 16 weeks of unemployment. They whittled it down to 14
and then they finally ended up at only 11 weeks.
So that's beyond disappointing, especially when you consider the fact that most Americans
are not even gonna have access to the vaccine until late spring, early summer.
So if congressional lawmakers are thinking, no, we're good now. I mean, we have a vaccine,
everything's been solved. That's clearly not the case. The one upside of how the
unemployment language is written is that the benefit will
cover gig workers who traditionally are not covered under unemployment benefits.
So that is a little bit of good news.
There are other elements of this bill that I wanna share with you Cenk, but first, I'd love
to hear your thoughts about what we know so far. >> Okay, so first of all, I don't want people
thinking that how they sprung it on the rest of the legislators is a small point.
If you get a 5,000 page bill plopped on your desk and they say you're gonna vote in two hours,
that means there's no way in the world you and your entire staff could
ever read it in that two hours. That means only leadership decided what's in the bill.
They basically are telling all of your representatives especially the progressive ones,
because the conservative ones will go along anyway, they are not an issue. Those guys and I
mean Conservatives and Republican and Democratic side. Those guys almost never read the bill. So
progressives are much more vigilant. So they wanna go through and see what's right and wrong and
that's exactly why both Republican and Democratic leadership don't want them to read the bill.
So they just got pushed right through jam and then if they don't vote for all you guys are
against getting people on employment, etc. So that's a trick and it's an important trick.
Secondly, look, I partly can't blame the press too much because of
the situation that the bill is so large and they just got a two.
But they have to clarify this super important point that we're making here.
If at least 429 billion is repurposed from the original Cares Act and McConnell says is more,
but let's take the 429 number, that means this is not a $908 billion bill, it's a $480 billion bill.
Now, that's still a number, it's not the 1.8 that Pelosi turned down. It's not the 2.2 she
proposed earlier. It's not the 3.4 they proposed before that
but. But you got to be accurate about what the number is and it doesn't appear that
almost any of them are being accurate about it in terms of what's in this particular bill.
I have more thoughts on what's what the particulars are but Anna.
>> Yeah, no, and I think that is an important point, because when it comes to
bailing out corporations, or spending government resources on the wealthy,
well, there's no problem, there's no real debate. But they certainly did nickle and
dime Americans with how this relief bill has been written in regard to ordinary Americans right?
And so look at the short amount of time that people will get access to these unemployment
benefits, it went from 16 weeks to 11 weeks. Obviously the amount of money that they're
going to receive per week has gone down from $600 which was in the Cares Act, to only $300.
And keep in mind that many Americans are in desperate need of financial relief right now,
right away. And to put out a $600 means tested direct check at a time of absolute
crisis is shameful, it's embarrassing, it's pathetic. And it's what you can expect from
feckless lawmakers and greedy Republicans who are looking out for their corporate donors.
Now, when it comes to small businesses,
it's important to know that there is some money appropriated specifically for them.
Although understandably, there's concern that you're gonna have major corporations
dip into this money as well as they did with the Cares Act. The bill includes
more than $284 billion for first and second forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Expanded PPP eligibility for nonprofit organizations and news outlets. And modifications
to the program to serve small businesses, nonprofits and independent restaurants.
Now, churches and faith based organizations will also be able to qualify for this money
as they did with the Cares Act. I also wanna note though, that businesses who take advantage
of this money will get considerable tax benefits, considerable tax deductions.
And we'll talk about that in more detail in an upcoming story on our show. But just for now I
think it's important to mention that businesses that receive PPP loans and had them forgiven
will be allowed to deduct the costs covered by those loans on their federal tax returns.
While the issue had been a point of contention, Senator John Thune
said the costs would be deducible under the final agreement. Remember that is
tax free money that small businesses were receiving as part of the PPP program. And so
they're going to get two tax advantages through the way this legislation is written.
The package also includes a tax break for corporate meal expenses urged by the White
House and denounced by Democrats. Dubbed the three-martini lunch tax deduction by opponents,
the tax break was promoted by Trump as a way to revive the restaurant industry.
So the idea here is to encourage corporate executives and people with privilege jobs, to go
to restaurants to have, meetings and then deduct the bill because they're engaging in business.
But there's definitely opportunity for abuse for this kind of tax deduction.
And so this is this is what we get, this is what we're dealing with,
something that overwhelmingly benefits the privileged and nickel dimes,
people who are in desperate need. >> Yes, so in terms of the particulars of
the bill, I wanna be clear, there's some things that are not great as Anna just pointed out,
including the Three Martini lunch tax exemption, that is not gonna help restaurants.
You're not gonna have twice as many lunches, it's gonna have business interest,
let's keep real and mainly executives. So, and there's definitely really good things in the bill.
So I wish I extend on employment more but they did extend it. I wish all the money in there,
that went directly to Americans was more but there's some in there.
They're paying for vaccine, so that's good. And they're helping small businesses, that's good. So
full picture here, definitely some good stuff in there. Actually a small amount
of bad stuff, so there's one thing that isn't in there, that's good, which is the liability issue,
which there are problems we're trying to push for all the businesses to get.
Now, having said all that, the number one issue is the size. So the Democrats said they were gonna
get $3 trillion worth of relief. And it's now gotten whittled down to less than half a trillion.
And so our members are already writing in, engineer writes in and our member section
about the unemployment insurance 16 weeks to 14 weeks to 11 weeks of unemployment.
Sounds like the master legislator is that work again. And that's right, and so now Pelosi,
whittled down the amount to an amount she said, I mean
four times as much she said was unacceptable. And that every point of the negotiations,
the Democrats honestly lost. >> Yep.
>> And so to be fair not every point, but almost every point.
And it was reset after they move the goalposts, after the McConnell says no to everything,
then the press goes okay, now, we're not talking about 3, 2 or 1 trillion anymore.
Now, we're talking about just this tiny little field and within that field,
the Democrats got one or two things, and the Republicans got a bunch of other things.
No, remember their original battle plan was to go for
like I said it nearly ten times this amount and they just couldn't get anywhere near it
because as usual Democratic leadership is awful and politics in negotiating.
>> So there are other important points that I wanna make about this legislation.
First off, one positive outcome is that it will not include a corporate liability
shield. Meaning that it It doesn't clear these corporations from liability
if their employees get sick or die as a result of their negligence at the workplace,
right? So the Tyson Meatpacking Plant story that we've been telling you guys about.
Those employees who are currently suing for wrongful death can continue to move forward
with that lawsuit. And I think that's important considering the details of the allegations there.
Also, there is an expansion or I should say extension
of the eviction moratorium, which I think is certainly not enough.
Because what it does is it kicks the can down the road without really offering Americans the aid
that they need in order to pay their rent. Because once that moratorium is lifted on January 31st,
which is what's indicated in this legislation, people are gonna owe back rent to their landlords.
And recent study indicated that, the average American who is relying on this moratorium
is gonna owe about $5,400 in back rent as soon as the moratorium is lifted,
and that's pretty disastrous. There are also some other things included
in the government spending portion of this legislation that I wanna share with you guys.
About $1.4 billion has been appropriated for Trump's border wall, which I think
it's a weird time to spend any resources on that. There's also $500 million for Israel
in the package. There's no student loan relief included in the package.
And there's also no funding for state and local government in the relief portion of the package.
And so no, I can't lie like there are certainly a lot of downsides to this.
But lawmakers who wanna do the right thing are kind of pushed or backed up into a corner
because Americans are desperate. And as these negotiations continue, people
are starting to get angry about the fighting about, how long do the certain benefits last?
How much should certain benefits be? People are definitely insulted at the small amount of money
that will be sent to them in direct checks. But overall, people are just in an incredibly
desperate position right now. >> Anna, just to be clear here,
the Border Wall funding and the Israel funding that's an overall spending bill.
That's not just- >> Yeah,
>> The COVID- >> Yeah, yeah.
>> Right. >> Yeah.
>> Okay. >> Yeah,
and I wanna be clear in that, the reason why this is such a big bill is because it
combines two different things. The government spending bill and the relief package, it groups
it into one thing that they're gonna vote on based on reports they're gonna vote on today.
>> And how much was that
number again for the Border Wall and Israel? >> So for the Border Wall, it's $1.4 billion.
And I do know that that's part of the government spending bill, portion of the bill. And then
the Israel money is $500 million. So $500 million for aid to Israel in this package.
>> Yeah, so I know that Republicans often say, why are we giving any money to any
foreign country? Why don't we take care of our people here first, America first, right? Wait,
why in the middle of a pandemic, are we giving $500 million to Israel?
Now, the reality is Israel gets way more than that over the course of a year.
I mean, last I checked it was 3 billion, it's probably increasing every year.
So I don't know, it's a good question.
So I know when countries suffer a catastrophe and we're the good guys when we come and help them,
like Haiti, what when they went through their natural disaster and other places.
But I don't know why we're giving money for a border wall that is gonna stop emitting,
every dollar of that border wall is a total and utter waste. Biden is not gonna continue the wall.
Nobody is gonna continue the wall. So there's no way that it's gonna ever gonna get completed.
So the 1.4 billion is a total and utter waste. You might as well flush down the toilet,
and then they tell us we don't have money to do health care for everybody. Now, we don't
have money for COVID relief and on and on and on. And see this is why people get frustrated because
Washington doesn't care about you.
They care about their donors and and an agenda that makes no sense. So
I'm just gonna say one last time. Pelosi started the negotiations at 3.4 trillion,
in the House passed the bill for 2.2 trillion. In new funding right now there's only 480 billion.
So she got at most 15% of what she originally wanted.
Any reporter who calls her a master legislator is not really a reporter. They're just a really,
really sad sick a fan for people in power. >> Yeah, look, I'll say one final thing and
it's that Nancy Pelosi and we'll talk about in more detail later as well.
Nancy Pelosi made purely a political calculation prior to the election.
And that calculation was to turn down a more robust relief package that was being proposed
by the White House because she knew that there was a possibility that it would help Donald
Trump's chances of getting reelected. That's what it was really about at the end of the day.
And that's the reason why she decided to reject that package
and then immediately sign on to this slim package, the skinny package that doesn't
give Americans the relief that they absolutely need. I understand the risk in doing what I
think would have been the right thing and in signing on to the original relief package.
But I mean, when you consider the devastation that Americans are facing right now you understand the
weight of the issue. 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since the last summer.
That is insane, and they have been completely neglected by our lawmakers. I'm not placing all
of the blame on Nancy Pelosi, but I do think she made a mistake prior to the election.
>> Yeah, no question. But let's be fair, Chuck Schumer also to blame.
>> Chuck Schumer, I mean, Mitch McConnell was not in favor of the White House package either.
So it probably would have failed in the senate anyway. But I think it would have been far more
powerful for Pelosi to put the ball in McConnell's court and then aggressively campaign against him
and his unwillingness to provide relief to Americans but that's not what happened.
>> But let me say one last thing. That's Mitch, I don't blame Mitch McConnell,
Mitch McConnell serves the rich and only the rich. So he actually,
by his own standards did a great job. He made sure that the American people got
as little money as humanly possible, and businesses got as much as humanly possible.
That's his job, and he did a really, really well. The problem is Pelosi and Schumer
are supposed to fight for us. And they're the ones who usually throw the game.