This is outrageous and unconstitutional. But he knows he can get away with it. He already did. What are they going to do? Impeach him?
Between McConnell making it clear he wants business to be given a pass on liability for failing to protect their workers if the blue states want to avoid bankruptcy and Trump demanding that the states succumb to his unhumane immigration policies if they want any federal aid, I think we are officially no longer one country.
This is now America, which is living under the US Constitution and Trumplandia, living under Dear Leader. Unfortunately Trumplandia, for the moment has the purse strings. It’s very important that America wins next November.
By the way:
It’s unclear why, exactly, some Republicans appear convinced that only political entities that happen to be run by Democrats are about to experience a financial rout. Perhaps it’s because the biggest coronavirus hot spots have tended to be in places like New York, New Jersey, and Michigan.
But economic activity has frozen all over the country as governors try to slow the pandemic, and even if Georgia or Texas attempt to “reopen” a bit early, that won’t save them from the shockwaves of a deep national recession. Some Republicans, like McConnell, have seemingly suggested that states like Illinois are in financial trouble now because of their long-standing public pension problems.
Insofar as that makes any sense, it’s because some states with pension issues (Illinois, Pennsylvania) haven’t been able to build large rainy day funds or other reserves that would help tide them through this crisis. But that list of offenders also includes McConnell’s own home state of Kentucky, which has one of the worst-managed pensions in the country.
And here’s the thing: States that have put money in reserve are going to get bowled over, too. “Even well-prepared states are going to be totally outmatched by the size of the downturns we’re about to see,” Dan White, director of government consulting and fiscal policy research at Moody’s Analytics, told me.
Earlier this month, White and his colleagues published a forecast showing that, due to the coronavirus crisis, the vast majority of states are likely to face serious budget shortfalls over the next year that will more than devour their entire rainy day funds—and that some of the worst emergencies are likely to be in swing states and in deep Trump country. Sure, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois are in trouble. But so are Florida, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Arizona, Mississippi, West Virginia, and plenty of others, including, yes, Kentucky.
Honestly, I think they’ll happily let people in their own states suffer if it means breaking public employee unions and their pensions. They aren’t even thinking about the rmifications. They just see an opportunity to advance their agenda and they’re going for it.
Trump, of course, is just being an asshole because he wants the Blue State governors to grovel and because he thinks his cult will like him sticking it to the libs.