Democrats Failed Workers in Stimulus Negotiations
By: Shane Sarosy
Tags: Democrats, News, Democratic Party, Coronavirus, Politics

Democrats have failed to wield what little leverage they had during stimulus negotiations to secure much-needed provisions for workers. The Biden Campaign meanwhile has been lowering expectations for his upcoming administration. Failure to pass a stimulus bill focusing on helping workers would be catastrophic for millions of Americans, and Democrats have yet to show that they are willing to fight for the country’s workers.

The United States has been the hardest-hit countries by the pandemic, despite being the planet’s wealthiest country. Over 300,000 Americans are dead, and nearly 3,000 Americans are now dying every single day. The high death count is mainly due to the Republican lead federal government’s delayed response, which failed to implement necessary health mandates, and significantly downplayed the virus’s deadliness. What’s even worse is that millions of Americans are sick, starving, or about to be evicted from their homes because the same Republican lead government refuses to pass the proper stimulus needed to keep Americans from being forced into poverty.

Pelosi’s Coronavirus Bill

Nancy Pelosi had the first crack at passing legislation to help Americans sick with COVID-19 back in March because Donald Trump was too busy downplaying the virus’s severity. The bill meant to provide paid sick leave to workers to afford to stay home if they became ill, but by the time it passed the Senate, it only covered 20% of workers and excluded the largest corporations.

Instead of playing hardball to make Mitch McConnell and Republicans suffer the consequences of prioritizing corporate profits and denying workers paid sick leave during a public health emergency, Pelosi capitulated to their requests to water down the original proposal. The result left the vast majority of workers without sick leave protections, increasing the likelihood someone would go to work despite having symptoms. Since the Senate passed the bill, COVID-19 has infected millions of Americans. The need for paid sick time off work has become essential, but most have not qualified for that paid leave.

The CARES Act Corporate Giveaway

As the previous bill was not sufficient, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang advocated for universal basic income in response to the health crisis. Democratic representatives Ro Khanna and Tim Ryan introduced legislation to provide payments to low-income citizens during the crisis via an earned income tax credit. Republican senators Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton said they supported a $1,000 check. These ideas should have been the start of various programs to get the public through a pandemic and economic crisis safely. Still, the final bill included just a single $1,200 check and increased unemployment benefits and did not protect evictions, foreclosure, or forbearance for workers. Other problems included no additional money for state and local governments, no additional SNAP funds, no extra OSHA protection for workers, no expanded sick or emergency leave, and gave little to no help to people who were uninsured or had student loan debt.

On the other hand, the bill included an astounding $4.5 trillion corporate slush fund with little restriction on stock buybacks and loopholes to fire workers. It also provided minimal transparency of the lending by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, a former CEO of a Bank that committed over a thousand violations of foreclosure laws during his time there. Bailed out companies could even pay dividends to their shareholders, allowing the wealthiest Americans to profit directly from bailout money.

Now nearly nine months after the bill, 25 million Americans are struggling to get enough food, and 40 million Americans face evictions. Simultaneously, the 651 wealthiest billionaires’ collective wealth has increased by over $1 trillion since March 18. Once again, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats caved to Mitch McConnell’s demands for a giveaway to corporations and special interest groups and provided only the bare minimum to workers to keep the economy from imploding. It quickly passed the house, and not a single Senate Democrat voted against the blatant transfer of wealth to the country’s wealthiest, the group that needed help the least.

PPP and State/Local Funding

Another part of the CARES act included the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The PPP established a loan program run directly through lenders. Congress specifically designed it to help small employers fund payroll costs. Like everything else about the bill, congress implemented it poorly, and they capped the program’s funds. The funds ran out within two weeks, leaving most small businesses without help. Many large corporations somehow qualified for PPP loans, taking away from the small businesses that needed it. After realizing their mistake, republicans rushed to pass more funds for the PPP. Nancy Pelosi once again offered little resistance.

When asked in an interview with Jake Tapper if it was a “tactical mistake” to give republicans everything they wanted while not securing state and local funding, Pelosi in an annoyed tone responded:

“Just calm down, We will have state and local and we will have it in a significant way. It’s no use going on to what might have been.”

This interview was from April, and there has yet to be any legislation passed with state and local funding, which, if left unattended, will result in states having to cut spending, leading to more laid-off workers.

The Biden Campaign Ignoring Economic Issues

The Joe Biden campaign decided not to paint Donald Trump as the culmination of Republican policies that have hurt workers but consistently portrays him as an anomaly. The campaign rarely discussed economic issues and the approaches to fix those issues, giving voters little reason to turnout other than “Trump bad.” That made it easier for voters to oppose Trump but still back Republicans in House and Senate races, costing democrats seats in the House and possibly losing Democrats control of the Senate. Without the Senate, Mitch McConnell would be able to stonewall the Biden administration’s attempt to pass additional stimulus and policy. The Democrats’ failure to center their messaging around kitchen-table issues and instead focusing on presidential decorum hurt moderates down-ballot and cost the party critical seats.

To make things worse, voters are hoping Joe Biden will bring America back to “normal.” But it seems most have forgotten that “normal” wasn’t that good from the beginning as Biden’s cabinet is now slowly filled with War Hawks, Deficit Hawks, and corporate lobbyists. These picks show blatant favoritism towards corporations, special interest groups, and the military-industrial complex. A display that lacks seriousness to increase fiscal spending during an economic crisis, end endless wars, fix America’s broken healthcare system, or even address climate change.

Despite being pressured to use executive authority, Biden has gone as far as telling civil rights leaders, “Executive authority that my progressive friends talk about is way beyond the bounds.” The Prospect has found 277 policies in the Biden-Sanders unity task force document that can be enacted through executive branch powers. 48 of the policies are rollbacks of Trump-era policy changes, 78 have to do with Immigration, 54 for Climate Change, and 54 for the Economy. Democrats are lowering voter’s expectations of the Biden administration by telling activists that they will govern with one hand tied behind their back.

“That’s O.K. now because we have a new president.”

Before the election, Nancy Pelosi introduced the $3 trillion HEROES act, which has since passed the house and is being blocked by Mitch McConnell. While having much-needed provisions such as state and local funding, unemployment benefits, more PPP funding, hazard pay, and a bailout for USPS, it also included a giveaway to the insurance industry. The legislation would have subsidized COBRA, an inefficient program that disproportionately excludes low-income workers and people of color. A better idea would have been to expand the much cheaper Medicare. Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders have introduced a bill that would extend Medicare to the uninsured until a vaccine for the coronavirus is widely available.

Heading into the election, Republicans had offered a second corporate giveaway. This time they wanted to give corporations liability protection from making their workers work in potentially unsafe conditions. One Harvard Study showed a surge in worker COVID deaths following their requests for government regulators’ help. Nancy Pelosi rightly rejected the offer saying it was “one step forward, two steps back,” and accused President Trump of opposing provisions to “honor our workers, crush the virus and put money in the pockets of workers.”

It turns out all along she wasn’t holding out because the $1.8 trillion wasn’t enough for workers. It was because she didn’t want to risk helping Donald Trump in the upcoming election. Now that Joe Biden has won, Pelosi endorsed new legislation that would protect corporations from liabilities related to COVID-19 while reducing workers’ benefits. When pushed on it by a reporter, she condescendingly responded:

“it’s for a shorter period of time, but that’s O.K. now because we have a new president.”

The bill was later negotiated to exclude the corporate liabilities but also excluded state and local funding again. Stimulus check were also reduced to a meager $600 one-time payment. The final bill was a improvement but still falls short of the relief Americans desperately need. Bernie Sanders criticized the Bill, referencing the significantly small size of the relief compared to the $3.4 trillion originally proposed.

“That is not a negotiation. That is a collapse”

The length that Congress has gone to protect corporate interests while ignoring workers is sickening. Millions of Americans are out of work, struggling to eat, and facing evictions. A significant amount of stimulus focused on workers is needed, or the economy will implode. Congress since the very beginning have failed the workers of America by not making them a priority at any point. That should concern everyone about Joe Biden’s administration as well. From leaving most workers out of the sick leave bill to approving corporate giveaways to not securing state or local funding, workers have been left to rot by their government. How many times do workers have to hear that they will be taken care of next time?