04/03/2020
Recently, our federal government passed the CARES Act, which provides direct economic relief to some Americans in the form of a one time $1,200 check or direct deposit for individuals, $2,400 for joint filers, and $500 for children. Recipients with direct deposit information on file with the IRS are expected to receive the bailout within two weeks. However, checks could be delayed by as much as 20 weeks.
Likewise, the bill does not go far enough and covers a limited number of Americans. For example, college students claimed as dependents will not receive relief despite losing employment and facing a rising debt crisis.
Moreover, the $500 billion allocated to corporations in the form of bailout loans will see very little to no oversight. In the past few days, Trump stated he will ignore a key provision in the CARES Act, which can establish a Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (SIGPR). The SIGPR would send reports to Congress, ensure funds would go to business most impacted by COVID-19, and provide oversight and transparency to the lending process.
Specifically, out of the 500 billion dollars earmarked for federal loans, $50 billion is designated to the airline industry, which is frankly a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars. For instance, Boeing, one of America's largest airliners, recently spent most of last year buying back its stock and building faulty airplanes that need to be rebooted every 51 days to prevent catastrophic failure and accidents.
Lastly, COVID-19 tests are free, however, treatment is extremely expensive for the over 20 million Americans without insurance.
We must demand an additional People's Bailout to ensure all Americans have universal access to free COVID-19 treatment, protective equipment, and paid sick leave in addition to testing.
Furthermore, the federal government needs to issue universal monthly payments to all Americans of at least $1,000 for the duration of the crisis with higher payments going to working-class families. Equally, they must strengthen social safety nets, relieve student debt, end evictions, foreclosures, and shutoffs.
Similarly, all funds for specific industries must go to workers and not executives or shareholders. We must ensure companies keep all employees on payroll while ensuring no one is fired due to COVID-19. Companies receiving bailouts must uphold high labor practices, including living wages and worker representation on the company’s board of directors.
In addition to short term solutions, we must begin to implement longer-term policy including a jobs guarantee to prevent record unemployment after the crisis ends. This means investing in building regenerative infrastructure, expanding public transportation, and building resilience for future pandemics.
Lastly, we must ensure everyone will have access to democracy during the pandemic, and this means expanding voting by mail, online and automatic registration to all states, and providing federal funds to support these measures.
Learn more at https://thepeoplesbailout.org/.
Use their online tool to write to Congressman Lloyd Smucker, U.S. Senator Bob Casey, and Senator Pat Toomey to demand a second People's Bailout!
We overcame adversity during the great depression with the New Deal and we can do it again with a People's Bailout and Green New Deal!
