What Should be in the Next Stimulus Package

Even before the Nation’s representatives flights had taken off from Washington D.C. after passing the massive $2.2 trillion stimulus package, most political and economic observers realized that more would be needed to prop up the economy during the later stages of the public health crisis and in the interval afterward.

What should be in the next stimulus package?

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Donald Trump, despite not speaking to each other since October, both agree that a massive infrastructure program for the countries supply chain (roads, shipping, air, broadband) and vital services (like medical) should be on the to-do list.

Unfortunately, Political Prince of Darkness-Enemy of the People-Grim Reaper-Obstructionist in Chief-Moscow Mitch McConnell appears reluctant, despite support for it from members of his own party, to include that in the next stimulus legislation. It should be noted that he, more than anyone else, has obstructed infrastructure initiatives from Presidents Obama and Trump.

With the cracks in the last stimulus bill already showing and the unemployment rate shooting upward, Pelosi has already signaled that she would not push large infrastructure expenditures as long as the more immediate Coronavirus related issues are addressed.

What are those? They include more funding for:

• State and local governments to combat the crisis and meet their budget needs.
• The small business grant and loan program.
• Extending Unemployment Insurance for those let go because of the virus.
• Access to health care for those laid off and can not enroll in Medicaid or Obamacare.
• Food Stamps.
• Paid family and medical leave.
• Shoring up the ruling oversights in the last stimulus bill.

There should also be education aid to students in K-20 who need their own laptops because they can not currently utilize the ones in schools, public libraries, or internet cafes.

While this next bill will be helpful like the first three, more will be needed. Columnists like the New York Time’s  Paul Krugman and the Nation’s  Robert Bosarge have outlined the reasons and ways this could be done.

It is time for the leaders to think big and use the monies (with zero percent interest thanks to the Federal Reserve) to finally solve the nation’s infrastructure woes, health care access cracks and preparedness (especially for future pandemics,) and the country’s archaic voting system apparatus.

While some fringe Republicans would prefer to see the people make do with a mid 20th Century infrastructure, a health care system that Cuba beats, and a voting system that risks lives during a pandemic, it is time to bring this country into the Twenty-First Century.

It is important for the people to tell their public servants this is what they want and if their elected officials do not show they support these forward-looking measures, then the election is 210 days away.

https://blogforarizona.net/what-should-be-in-the-next-stimulus-package/?fbclid=IwAR0_MPItUb2h-8MprtbAABulSIVq6ba-u00sj8apzDNe6Qq87uC2YUvdZPM