How Congress Can Give Americans $2K Relief Checks and Cut Omnibus Pork to Pay for It

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How Congress Can Give Americans $2K Relief Checks and Cut Omnibus Pork to Pay for It

Rebecca Mansour, John Binder and John Carney 24 Dec 2020

President Donald Trump has urged Congress to increase the amount of the direct relief payments to Americans to $2,000 by cutting out the unrelated pork in the coronavirus rescue package and government spending bill. Breitbart News has calculated how much that increase would cost and what could be cut from the 5,593-page omnibus bill to offset it.

The House and Senate passed the combined $900 billion coronavirus relief package and $1.4 trillion government spending bill on Monday night, but the massive 5,593-page omnibus bill immediately drew criticism for sending billions of dollars of aid to foreign countries while only allotting $600 relief checks for Americans.

Populists on the right and left, led by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), argued that sending direct coronavirus relief checks to Americans provides the easiest and most equitable way to get funding to where it can have the most impact in helping people get through the pandemic.

Trump’s call to increase direct payments to $2,000 has bridged the partisan divide in Washington, receiving agreement from Hawley and Sanders, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). However, some Republicans have blocked the effort to amend the bill, worrying about the increase in spending for Americans despite the billions of dollars of foreign aid included in the bill.

There is no question that the United States government can afford to pay Americans more. The U.S. has an unerring history of paying its debts, and as a result, it can borrow from the public at extremely low rates. Especially in times of economic stress, investors in the U.S. and around the globe seek out U.S. Treasuries as a safe haven for their cash, which means that the pandemic’s surge around the globe has made it easier for the government to raise funds by selling bonds to willing buyers. The world wants to fund our government, which is why the yield on the 10-year Treasury is less than one percent.

excerpt:

To offset this $183 billion increase, we have identified the following potential cuts from the omnibus bill. In multiple sources of funding, as noted below, lawmakers allotted money well over what Trump had requested. These funds are labeled as “excess funding.”

    $8 billion for the Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism
    $1.7 billion for USAID operations abroad
    $26.5 billion for “Bilateral Economic Assistance” abroad
    $3.3 billion for “Global Health Programs”
    $4.4 billion for “International Disaster Assistance”
    $3.4 billion for “Refugee Assistance”
    $2.4 billion for “democracy programs”
    $1.7 billion for Jordan
    $1.9 billion for “international food aid”
    $35 billion in new clean energy initiatives to fight climate change
    $9 billion for “international security assistance”
    $5.9 billion for the “President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)”
    $950 million for “basic education” programs in foreign countries
    $740.3 million for “educational and cultural exchange” programs in foreign countries
    $1.5 billion for “Contributions to International Organizations”
    $224 million tax breaks for motor sports venues
    $16 billion tax credit for businesses that hire individuals facing “significant barriers to employment”
    $1 billion tax credit for “special expensing rules for entertainment productions”
    $13 billion tax breaks for clean energy initiatives
    $9 billion in tax credits for beer, wine, and distilled spirits producers
    $2 billion “to enable better scientific information about the Earth and its changing climate”
    $16.2 billion in excess funding for transportation, housing, and urban development
    $19.2 billion in excess funding for the Department of Labor, Department of Education, and Health and Human Services
    $6.9 billion in excess funding for energy and water development
    $12.3 billion in excess funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency

TOTAL CUTS: $203,814,000,000

more
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/12/24/how-congress-can-give-americans-2k-relief-checks-and-cut-omnibus-pork-to-pay-for-it/