© vaccineuk/IRS/KJNA poke and a check?
With Democrats and Republicans still stuck at an impasse on stimulus negotiations, one Maryland Congressman and erstwhile presidential candidate named John Delaney has engineered a novel strategy for killing two birds with one stone: dispersing another round of stimulus funds, while ensuring that enough Americans consent to receiving the vaccine that the US can quickly top the roughly 70% immunity threshold at which point scientists believe the vaccine will stop propagating.
And that plan is: Offering Americans a
$1,500 "incentive payment" to acquiesce to receiving both doses of the vaccine. Delaney argued that the plan would benefit all Americans, even those who still refuse, because it might help the country crush the virus more quickly.
"The faster we get 75% of this country vaccinated, the faster we end Covid and the sooner everything returns to normal," Delaney said in an interview with CNBC.com.
To be sure, Delaney's plan has
virtually zero chance of becoming law. Republicans and Democrats can't even seem to agree on basic things like the size of the package ($600BN or $900BN) and whether businesses deserve a liability shield to stop them from being sued by people claiming to have been infected in their establishment (GOP leader Mitch McConnell sees this as a must).
President Trump recently promised Americans that the vaccine wouldn't be mandatory.Delaney initially conceived of the scheme as a workaround for the widespread public skepticism about the vaccine. While recent opinion polls show that the number of Americans planning to get the vaccine as soon as it's available has been on the upswing,
more than 40% of the population either has already been infected, doesn't see any urgent need for a vaccine, or simply doesn't trust the data.
Comment: "So, why should the federal government spend all that money
when there are other, cheaper, ways to pressure families into submitting?" How abominably frugal!
Bernie Sanders comes forth to admit the
Dems are holding back on a COVID relief bill (the one Pelosi has been stone-walling for weeks):
The running narrative on COVID-19 relief bills is that Republicans are the ones withholding it from the people, but as Vermont Senator and avowed democratic-socialist Bernie Sanders recently admitted, it's been the Democrats holding it back the entire time.
The admission came during an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN. Tapper asked about the $1.8 trillion bill that White House Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was working on with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and that Democrats walked away from.
"That's right!" said Sanders. Tapper asked Sanders if walking away from it was a mistake.
"That's what I'm saying! That's exactly what I'm saying! Here was a proposal much much larger, Democrats are, 'no that's not good enough,' and now we're prepared to accept a proposal that has I think $350 billion dollars in new money? I don't think this is much of a compromise. I think the Republicans have probably gotten 90% of what they want. Our job is to fight and get at least a 50-50 deal. We gotta do a lot better and negotiate a lot harder."
Democrats have been blaming the GOP for America not getting any COVID relief, but as you can see, Sanders has just admitted that it was the Democrats who are currently to blame for this.
This admission comes after politicians like New York's socialist darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attempted to point the finger at Mitch McConnell and the Republicans. It's a point that Ted Cruz shot down, resulting in a back and forth with the New York congresswoman until she eventually lost the argument and decided not to respond.
Despite Sanders's talk of getting more funding for the people, this reeks more of a political tactic regarding who gets the credit than anything else. The last thing Democrats need is for checks to be dolled out under a Republican-controlled Senate and White House, thus softening any view of the Republicans potential voters may have.
The bottom line is that if you were expecting a check, you know who to blame now.
It is no secret Pelosi was stonewalling this decision until the fake election win took place. She has admitted this.
See also:
Comment: See also: