The Corona Grift
We've had so much apocalyptic news hitting us every day, some falls through the cracks. I never noticed this hit the news, for example - it's the official report of Trump's business group put in charge of brainstorming how to "reopen the country"
- "faith-based organizations should be treated equally with secular organizations" - because clearly subsidizing evangelical "charities" is a priority during a pandemic
- "Department of Health and Human Services should do more to encourage innovation in medicine" - aka lifting constraints on 'prescribing' unproven treatments if it makes $$$
- "review all regulations that inhibit economic growth… …[including] the so-called independent agencies and commissions such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission" - it's harder to make Number go up if there are RULES!
- "The Commission recommends that the President direct agencies not to enforce a range of regulations against small businesses" - those annoying rules again, they haven't been completely destroyed yet, let's finish the job!
- "reduce tariffs to spur economic growth" - good luck with that one, have you noticed who the president is lately?
- "The Commission recommends that Congress enact a physical presence standard for tax liability. " - in other words, states can no longer demand Internet merchants collect state taxes on online sales. Isn't that great?
- "The Commission recommends that Congress should correct unemployment insurance (UI) provisions and increase workers’ flexibility" - yeah, that $600 a week benefit you're giving the unemployed? We don't like that. We weren't paying people that much, you see. (And yes, they literally state that - " This benefit makes it possible for a majority of Americans to make more money by becoming unemployed than by remaining employed")
- "The Commission recommends that Congress make federal funding portable for children from low income families and children with special needs." - aka, allow federal relief to go to religious and for-profit schools, because who needs public schools any more?
And the big one, of course: - "The Commission recommends that Congress should expand liability protections associated with the novel coronavirus." While we're here, could we have a get out of jail free card? That'd be greeeeeat.
Read it for yourself. I'm sure I missed something. This is the most blatant state/crony capitalist power grab carried out in plain sight in recent memory, and it barely rated a blip.