74+ Brilliant, nasty, and totally narcissistic (dec 23)

It hit me like a baseball bat this morning; Donald Trump’s video, released last night, attacking the Congressionally hashed out Covid Relief legislation, is all of above.  

There is pork and garbage in most bills voted on in Congress. Most of us—probably most Senators and Representatives—never see the pork and garbage. If anything we wink at it and concentrate on the meat, the primary provisions and purposes of the proposed legislation. Trump chose, at a minute so final that he can pocket veto it into the new Congress, to expose the legislation’s innards.

 

And he floated a big, fat, $2000 out there in front of everyone—Democrats and citizens who want it; and cost-conscious Republicans for whom even the $600 was a hard compromise. 

 

Senators and Representatives, many already gone home for the Christmas break, must quickly scurry and filter a dozen different scenarios to find one that will allow the legislation to pass. They’ll all—even McConnell—wince at the garbage, and Republicans will have to decide whether to defy Trump and stand up for it, or cave once again to his narcissistic demands.

 

Trump is back in the headlines, watching his minions sweat, weighing signing, vetoing, or pocket-vetoing in his own puffed up mind. Which will excite the most obsequious behavior? How many toadies can he count? 

 

Where’s there a thought for anyone else?

 

# # #

60. To Pelosi and McConnell--Cut a Deal!

 Day 10 of my quarantine--#2

 

To: Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell, 

 

Cut a deal!

 

Millions of Americans are sick, and thousands are dying as rapidly as any war has ever taken them. 

 

People are scared. Scared of getting sick or because they are sick, scared because they lost a job or might, scared because they’re hungry or without shelter or soon might be. People are isolated and alone, struggling to keep their kids in education programs, their marriages healthy, and their relationships with friends and family members alive. Many are at the end of a safety rope thrown to them months ago in your first Covid Relief package.

 

It’s not time to wait for January for another one, not time to weigh the implications of a deal now for the legacy of President Trump or the outcome of the Georgia runoff election. Instead of quibbling about the amount of money directed towards unemployment insurance, relief to hospitals and local governments and maintaining the airlines, get in that room of give and take and cut a deal. And stay in the room until you have one!

 

I believe that Joe Biden and a new administration can help us get through this pandemic in the long run, but it is the short run now, and Joe isn’t in the race. You are. 

 

Cut a deal!

 

# # #