Trillion dollar Coronavirus relief bill fails in the Senate.

An abandoned street in Chicago. AFP.

A trillion dollar Coronavirus relief bill failed in the senate in a 47-47 vote. AFP. The bill would have provided relief for American businesses and given cash payments to American citizens. At least five Senators did not vote due to Coronavirus concerns, including Rand Paul who recently tested positive. The shocking failure is already damaging futures markets and will increase pressure on Congress to act. Democrats blocked the bill saying that it did not do enough to protect American workers. 

My Comment:

Unbelievable. American citizens were depending on getting cash payments and now that won't happen for some time, if at all. And small businesses needed these loans. This is going to have a huge economic impact and will cause the stock market crash to get even worse. With so many people out of work, how are they going to take care of themselves without access to this cash? 

I don't buy the Democrats argument here. If I gave them the benefit of the doubt they are, at the very least, making perfect the enemy of good. Sure, they didn't get everything they wanted in this bill but they did get a lot that would have helped millions of Americans. Blocking it and hoping for a better deal is not a good move. More likely they just didn't want to give President Trump and the GOP a win. 

It's going to look terrible for them as well. No matter what the argument, the fact remains that they blocked a disaster relief bill instead of passing it or negotiating successfully. The campaign adds pretty much write themselves. I really don't understand why the Democrats are doing this, it's horrible optics. 

And there is a decent chance that they have extremely limited time to actually get something done, not just because of the severity of the outbreak, but because they may fall victim to the virus themselves. Rand Paul is infected and four other people are in quarantine. What happens if this was their only chance to pass a bill and everyone gets sick? 

As an aside, I am quite worried about Rand Paul. He was attacked in 2017 and almost died. He also lost part of his lung and I think he might be extra vulnerable to the virus. He's still relatively young at 57 and I remain optimistic about Chloroquine, but it's obviously bad news that he is sick. 

Either way, I think this shows how dysfunctional our government is. This was something that needed to get done and the Democrats seemed to have no interest in passing it. I am pretty sure that the voters will remember this in November. People will be out of jobs and bankrupt and they will want to take it out on someone...