Not another penny for COVID relief

On the first Friday night of the month, Michael Osterholm is a guest on Almanac to talk about COVID-19 matters. This Friday, one of the issues brought up is a new COVID relief bill that's nearing agreement. Among the things that might be included in the bill in this bill (it's still being negotiated) is "$1 billion in global vaccine funding could be added but only if other funding is cut to keep the total at $10 billion." That's according to "Mitt Romney, the top GOP negotiator on the bill." The GOP needs a better negotiator than Romney.

There shouldn't be another penny that should be spent on COVID relief. According to this article, hundreds of billions of dollars were spent in the Pelosi $1,900,000,000,000 COVID relief bill on things that had nothing to do with COVID:

The bill boosts the child tax credit (currently $2,000) to $3,600 per child under 6 and $3,000 for children ages 6 to 17.

It makes the credit fully refundable — meaning people who would otherwise owe less than that in taxes will be paid the credit. And instead of waiting until they file their taxes, the IRS will send the money out in portions, potentially each month, to act more like a regular income stream.

In other words, this tax credit took the place of the plussed-up unemployment benefits as an incentive for people not to work. The child tax credit still exists but it's returned to its pre-COVID levels. Democrats wanted this to become a middle-class welfare benefit. Fortunately, the Democrats' attempt failed.

There are also grants to the tune of $86 billion to bail out pension plans, a Democratic priority.

And there's $135 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, $135 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities and $175 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Schools, child care and student debt

The bill includes over $125 billion to help K-12 schools open, with some of the funding targeted at measures that address learning loss since the start of the pandemic.

Republicans offered an amendment to require that schools that receive the funding hold in-person classes once vaccinations are available to teachers, but it failed along party lines.

Since most of the $125,000,000,000 for opening schools went to schools that didn't open, it's time to claw the majority of that money back. This was yet another payoff to the AFT and the NEA. This is the videotaped interview:

Until the money gets clawed back that was spent on pension funds and other Democrat payoffs, Republicans should stand firmly against this new bill. Unfortunately, Mitt Romney is too liberal to do that. The next time he's up for re-election, Utahns should retire him from public life.

The good news is that Republicans are putting together a plan to balance the federal budget. This effort is being led by Newt Gingrich, Kevin Hassett, Art Laffer, Steve Forbes, Larry Kudlow, Doug Holtz-Eakin and Mick Mulvaney.

Part of what's required to control inflation is deficit federal spending. Part of that problem is a political problem. The other part of that problem is an economic problem. Getting these problems under control require getting Democrats out of power. That isn't to say that Republicans are pure as the driven snow; they aren't. It's saying that Democrats aren't interested in fixing inflation or government spending. Conservatives (not to be mistaken with Republicans) are a solutions-oriented bunch. Progressive Democrats are an ideology-driven bunch. It's that simple.

Until Democrats, wayward Republicans like Sen. Romney and Biden get their spending under control, not another penny should be spent on COVID relief. PERIOD.