Sanders, Trump Are Pushing $1,000-plus Cash Payments to People; Biden, Pelosi, Schumer Are Opposed or Silent

Democratic Leadership Mired in Total Failure

Update: Congressional Dems Are to the Right of the GOP. The party’s leadership is failing the test posed by the coronavirus.
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Want more evidence Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer do not give care about you?

Democratic leader Schumer criticizes Trump's call for $1,000 checks https://t.co/mVQvz85f69

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 19, 2020

I truly don't know how to describe how maddening it is that Republicans and Trump officials are to the left of Congressional Dem leadership on this issue. Absolutely fucking maddening. pic.twitter.com/qz55vvyzih

— jordan (@JordanUhl) March 18, 2020

Joe Biden is asleep at the switch, finding a Joe Biden quote, any position, on the Trump and Sanders-proposed $1,000-plus payments to Americans is impossible.

Nothing.

From Saagar Enjeti and Krystal Ball at Rising:



Reports the Los Angeles Times: "On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said the federal government was looking into 'sending checks to Americans immediately' as part of a $1-trillion stimulus proposal from the Trump administration to combat the negative impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the economy."

And it's the Democratic Party establishment that are holding up relief during this crisis.

From CommonDreams:

'Nancy Pelosi is officially to the right of Tom Cotton on economic support for American families,' HuffPost reporter Zach Carter tweeted on Sunday. 'This is a total failure of Democratic Party leadership.'

Pelosi's deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill on Twitter Tuesday emphasized that any aid 'MUST be targeted' for the Speaker to approve it, drawing further anger from the left. 'Why?' asked New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. 'If we agree that the crisis is stark and immediate, and we know that precise targeting takes time and administrative effort, why make that a requirement when you can simply disburse the funds *now* and collect from high-income recipients *later*?'

New Consensus president Saikat Chakrabarti was flabbergasted at Pelosi's resistance to payments for all Americans.

'This crazy obsession in Dem leadership with looking 'reasonable' by not 'doing too much' is about as impractical and insane as you can get in the face of a pandemic,' Chakrabarti tweeted.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has proposed a $2 trillion package including direct payments to Americans.

Journalist Walker Bragman on Wednesday noted the absurdity of Trump being closer to Sanders on relief than Democratic leadership. 

Democrats do not care about you, and never have. How can we doubt it now?

"We must provide direct, emergency $2,000 cash payments to every person in America every month for the duration of the crisis. We are likely already in a recession. Workers are losing income while their bills pile up. We must begin issuing cash payments of $2,000 a month for every person in America to provide households with the assistance they need to pay their bills and take care of their families," writes Bernie Sanders today in an email.

Emergency $2,000 cash payments to every person?

No, says the Democratic Party.