Mitch McConnell’s Republicans are destroying America | Salon.

com 8/8/20, 1:56 PM

Mitch McConnell’s Republicans are

destroying America
Time and again, they've shown that they only care
about their wealthy donors and corporate backers
Robert Reich

Senate Republicans' shameful priorities are on full display as the nation

continues to grapple with an unprecedented health and economic crisis.

Mitch McConnell and the GOP refuse to take up the HEROES Act, passed by
the House in early May to help Americans survive the pandemic and fortify
the upcoming election.

Senate Republicans don't want to extend the extra $600 a week in

unemployment benefits, even though unemployment has soared to the
highest levels since the Great Depression.

Even before the pandemic, nearly 80 percent of Americans lived paycheck to

paycheck. Now many are desperate, as revealed by lengthening food lines
and growing delinquencies in rent payments.

McConnell's response? He urges lawmakers to be "cautious" about helping

struggling Americans, warning that "the amount of debt that we're adding up
is a matter of genuine concern."

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McConnell seems to forget the $1.9 trillion tax cut he engineered in

December 2017 for big corporations and the super-rich, which blew up the
debtdeficit.

That's just the beginning of the GOP's handouts for corporations and the
wealthy. As soon as the pandemic hit, McConnell and Senate Republicans
were quick to give mega-corporations a $500 billion blank check, while only
sending Americans a paltry one-time $1,200 check.

The GOP seems to believe that the rich will work harder if they receive more
money while people of modest means work harder if they receive less. In
reality, the rich contribute more to Republican campaigns when they get
bailed out.

That's precisely why the GOP put into the last Covid relief bill a $170 billion
windfall to Jared Kushner and other real estate moguls, who line the GOP's
campaign coffers. Another $454 billion of the package went to backing up a
Federal Reserve program that benefits big business by buying up their debt.

And although the bill was also intended to help small businesses, lobbyists
connected to Trump — including current donors and fundraisers for his
reelection — helped their clients rake in over $10 billion of the aid, while an
estimated 90 percent of small businesses owned by people of color and
women got nothing.

The GOP's shameful priorities have left countless small businesses with no
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Mitch McConnell’s Republicans are destroying America | Salon.com 8/8/20, 1:56 PM

choice but to close. They've also left 22 million Americans unemployed, and
28 million at risk of being evicted by September.

For the bulk of this crisis, McConnell called the Senate back into session only
to confirm more of Trump's extremist judges and advance a $740 billion
defense spending bill.

Throughout it all, McConnell has insisted his priority is to shield businesses

from Covid-related lawsuits by customers and employees who have
contracted the virus.

The inept and overwhelmingly corrupt reign of Trump, McConnell, and

Senate Republicans will come to an end next January if enough Americans
vote this coming November.

But will enough people vote during a pandemic? The HEROES Act provides
$3.6 billion for states to expand mail-in and early voting, but McConnell and
his GOP lackeys aren't interested. They're well aware that more voters
increase the likelihood Republicans will be booted out.

Time and again, they've shown that they only care about their wealthy
donors and corporate backers. If they had an ounce of concern for the
nation, their priority would be to shield Americans from the ravages of Covid
and American democracy from the ravages of Trump. But we know where
their priorities lie.

Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of

California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration,
for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet
secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written 15 books, including the
best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage," and,

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Mitch McConnell’s Republicans are destroying America | Salon.com 8/8/20, 1:56 PM

his most recent, "The Common Good." He is also a founding editor of the
American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-
winning documentary, "Inequality For All." He's also co-creator of the Netflix
original documentary "Saving Capitalism."

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