Letting down both the country and their party

Robert Rubin and Jacob Lew are both former Treasury Secretaries. The wrote an impassioned op-ed in the Post this morning titled “Congress needs to address the pandemic economic crisis. This is not the time to worry about deficit spending.” 

You should read the piece – I don’t have much to add to it. The point is that there will be huge damage to a) the economy and b) lots of people, including the 14 million unemployed, unless Congress passes a real relief bill, not the emaciated joke that Mitch McConnell tried to pass yesterday. I found one statement particularly appalling: “In August, 1 in 10 adults reported that their household sometimes or often didn’t get enough to eat, and the rate is significantly higher in families with children.” 

The other amazing aspect of this is that not passing a real bill will definitely hurt the GOP – both Trump and Republican Senators up for re-election – much more than the Democrats. Yet, given that McConnell refuses to face reality, Trump won’t put his weight behind a real deal with the Democrats – and even Steven Mnuchin has said the stakes are very high. Trump – supposedly the great negotiator – hasn’t even talked with Nancy Pelosi since last October, but at least he could give Mnuchin the authority to negotiate a real bill with her (as Mnuchin did with the CARES Act, which Trump proudly claims credit for). But he’s not doing that. 

I of course would like to see both Trump and the GOP Senators soundly defeated in November. But I’d certainly be quite willing to take the chance that the Senate won’t change hands if those Senators would do what’s right for the American people and for once stand up to Trump. But it doesn’t look very likely that will happen. Both sad and truly amazing.

  

I would love to hear any comments or questions you have on this post. Drop me an email at tom@tomalrich.com

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