BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE
Back in 2016, a larger number of people I worked with admitted they were going to vote for Trump for two reasons: they detested the well-established power of Hillary Clinton AND they wanted to send someone to the Whitehouse who would destroy the status quo.
They sure did.
Now in 2020, Clinton has disappeared in the rearview mirror, but Trump is about to pay all of us (even supporters) back for the electoral college loss. Not simply refusing to concede the election in order to soak them all once again for money to “fight” the inevitable, but also to lay the framework(s) for kneecapping Biden’s Administration for the next four years after January 20th. And, in so doing, likely loose economic havoc upon the nation if possible in order to show us just how sorely he will be missed after being fired. Always the Imperial Sulker.
This week, treasury Secretary Mnuchin began an unexpected battle with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell about how to handle the remnants of nearly $1.8 trillion provided by the Congress for the CARES Act, passed in March of 2020, to assist the businesses, markets, and working population suffering from the effects of the Covid pandemic.
Ignoring the current precipitous climb in Covid cases nationally as coldly as he ignores the lack of any actual plan to do anything by a Whitehouse which has not addressed or attended any Task Force meetings for two months, Mnuchin cites the economy’s “great shape” as reason enough to pull money back to the Congress that was earmarked for the Federal Reserve for use in playing lifeguard if economic conditions were to drown.
You can read this later: (Very simply put, the money in the CARES Act was given to the Federal Reserve to provide money to all of us in need as the pandemic wreaked destruction on our economy: cutting borrowing rates, maintaining lowered interest rates, actually purchasing massive amounts of securities to stabilize residential and commercial mortgage backed borrowing, providing safety backstops for to cover losses for money market funds hit hard by the initial responses to Covid, eased overnight lending for cash and short term requests to keep price stability, assistance to small businesses, relief for municipal and state governments, and many more.)
Riding the market’s high wave of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccine announcements, Mnuchin, according to the New York Times, “is taking away a source of economic support just as the new administration comes into office and as rising virus cases dog the recovery. By asking the Fed to return the money that enables the emergency efforts, he could make it harder for the Democrats to restart then at a larger scale or on more generous terms.”
Get it? Things are probably to get worse with the Covid before they get better; the economy is therefore going to falter; and there will now not be any money left to help counter the problem.
One policy economist stated, “It is not just closing down the store for Biden; it’s burning down the store.”
On the other hand, “The Fed’s lawyers have interpreted the law to mean they can keep the programs running into 2021…”. But Mnuchin argues that the original CARES Act was written to end on December 31, 2020. Mitch McConnell, of course, agrees. And the money returned to the Secretary will not be recouped in loan repayments as it was originally intended. When returned to the Congress, it will instead be added to the deficit as Congress can use it to spend as they like.
How many more reasons do we need to become involved in a Senate run-off in Georgia in January?
According to the CDC, we’ve incurred nearly 200,000 new cases of Covid today. Those in need will see the end of their fiscal assistance on December 26th.
Trump and his cronies, realizing they will not win in the courts, are now in the process of assuring that the next incoming administration faces as many crises as they can manufacture – no matter how many people, friend or foe, are injured or killed.
Payback.
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