The Callousness of Congressional Republicans

Of the U.S. trillion dollar budget, over one half is for the Department of Defense (DOD), when the biggest threat to Americans is not a foreign military but rather a domestic pandemic that has already killed over 300 thousand Americans and may kill another 200 thousand by the spring of 2021. More disgracefully, between 2018 and 2019 Defense spending rose by $23 billion while spending on Health Care declined by $17 billion.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates expanding recovery rebates from $600 per person to up to $2,000 per person would cost between $300 and $435 billion on top of the $166 billion of rebates in the relief bill. However, it also estimates that cost will boost economic output by $200 to $300 billion and temporarily lift disposable income in the first few months of next year to as much as 25 percent above pre-COVID levels, so the net cost of COVID relief to Americans is significantly less than $400 billion.

The idea that pandemic relief spending would be harmful to this year’s 3 trillion dollar deficit is simply a red herring intended to disguise the callousness ( https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/29/politics/republican-senator-reject-2000-stimulus-increase/index.html ) of those who would vote to spend billions on new bombers, submarines and ballistic missles instead of pandemic relief.