Democracy for Vancouver

Even when you expect a piss-poor stimulus package, our democratic leaders can still limbo lower.

Pelosi and Reid got out their kneepads again, giving the GOP thugs the store while eeking out miniscule help for the working poor and the middle class in an economic stimulus package that will not put money into any individual’s pocket until June.

That’s right. Bernanke couldn’t wait 10 days until the next Fed meeting to give Wall Street their rate cut, and the corporate benefits of the package are retroactive, but the people who are actually losing their jobs at the bottom of the income ladder get to wait five months for assistance. Are they trying to push the mad money closer to the political conventions, or do they just not give a shit about the actual people this proto-recession is hurting right now?

The nuts and bolts of the tentative deal:
• $300 for almost everyone earning a paycheck, including low-income earners who make too little to pay income taxes, plus an additional $300 per child, with a $1,200 per family cap.

(I guess if you’re not earning a paycheck, you’re just doubly screwed! See “No extension of unemployment insurance benefits,” below.)

• Corporate tax breaks of more than $70 billion (”far more than had been expected, the aide and a Democratic lobbyist said”), a big chunk of which are retroactive to the 2006 tax year. Nice.

• No extension of unemployment insurance benefits.

• No increase in benefits for food stamp recipients.

• No increase in money to states to broaden Medicaid coverage.

Pelosi will say this is the best she could get, given that Boehner pushed to include upper middle-class couples, and the Preznit’s plan would have left out all 30 million of the working poor, who earn paychecks but don’t make enough to pay income tax.

You know what? Get on t.v. and tell voters exactly that. Tell voters to call their Republican reps and demand relief right now, not in June, and tell them the money needs to be in the hands of those who will spend it. Then see who’s got leverage and who’s wearing the kneepads.

But I think Pelosi’s gotten so used to prostrating herself, she doesn’t know any other position.

What’s the point of having a congressional majority if your leadership still acts like they’re the cowed minority?