Devil’s in the details

Ikeenly remember when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke those now infamous words referring to the Affordable Care Act in 2010— “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
    It’s much the same for a $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 that passed the House of Representatives over the weekend. It’s been dubbed as a COVID-19 relief bill.
    While there’s a significant amount of funding for COVID relief, it pales in comparison to the amount of non-COVID related pet funding the Democrats have slid into the bill.
    The worldwide crisis of COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the United States—more than a half-million deaths being the most tragic.
    But as Rahm Emanuel, a chief of staff for President Obama, once said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Democrats have done just that with the latest relief bill.
    I believe most Americans think another COVID relief bill is needed. What I’m not sure about is whether Americans realize how much money in this bill isn’t for COVID relief at all.
    Let’s take a look at some of this “pet” funding pulled directly from the bill:  Institute Of Museum And Library Services: $200,000,000; National Endowment For The Humanities: $135,000,000; National Endowment For The Arts:$135,000,000; National Science Foundation: $600,000,000; Usda Assistance And Support For Socially Disadvantaged Farmers, Ranchers, Forest Land Owners And Operators, And Groups: $1,010,000,000.
    Here’s another kicker where elections have consequences—the bill includes $219,800,000,000 (Yes, that’s billion with a B) for the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund.  
    Of that amount, just $25.5 billion will be divided equally among the 50 states and District of Columbia.
    Much of the remainder (except for $$ set aside for Tribal needs) will be apportioned out according to a state’s unemployment rate. Hmm? Seems to me that many of the blue states that have locked down have especially high unemployment numbers.
    Like I said, elections have consequences. The consequence from this one is that states like Nebraska, along with 32 other states, will be penalized for their low employment numbers because they choose not to lock down.
    Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has joined 22 Republican governors in issuing this statement, “A state’s ability to keep businesses open and people employed should not be a penalizing factor when distributing funds. If Congress is going to provide aid to states, it should be on an equitable population basis.”
    Yup, elections have consequences. Remember that in 2022.