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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCoronavirus Exposes the Virulence of American Conservatism
Coronavirus Exposes the Virulence of American Conservatism
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/senate-gop-puts-ideology-above-workers-in-coronavirus-bill.html
Last week, the United Kingdoms Conservative Party unveiled a plan to keep British workers paid and employed for the duration of the coronavirus crisis. The Tory proposal would effectively cover 80 percent of sidelined workers salaries, while forbidding employers who accept the governments help from laying off staff. The policy closely resembles one implemented by Denmarks Social Democrats, except that Boris Johnsons wage-replacement rate is slightly more generous than the Danish lefts. Although the Conservatives have a well-earned reputation for sacrificing Britains vulnerable on the altar of deficit reduction, even they recognize that social welfare must take precedence over budgetary concerns in the context of a historically sudden and deep economic crisis. On Friday, Tory chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that there would be no limit on the funding available for covering workers wages.
We are starting a great national effort to protect jobs, Sunak said. We want to look back on this time and remember how in the face of a generation-defining moment we undertook a collective national effort and we stood together.
Americas conservatives see things differently.
U.S. workers are every bit as exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic side effects as their peers across the pond. Unlike their British counterparts, however, American laborers arent guaranteed affordable health care if they lose their jobs, nor any amount of paid sick leave should they take ill. And yet, despite our workers unique vulnerability to the harms of illness and unemployment, congressional Republicans are not only unwilling to support universal paid leave or make an open-ended commitment to covering 80 percent of workers salaries but are also fighting to protect the right of bailed-out corporations to fire as many workers as they see fit.
On Sunday, the Senate failed to reach an agreement on an already belated economic relief package, a development thats left small-business owners and laid-off workers reeling and financial markets tumbling. The mainstream press has attributed the Senates inaction to Washington infighting, or else to Democratic intransigence. But Chuck Schumers caucus didnt vote down the Republican bill over some minor detail, or because it insisted on dictating the lefts preference on an issue that genuinely divides blue and red America. Rather, the key sticking point is that the GOP bill would empower the Trump administration to dole out $500 billion in bailout money to corporations of its own choosing without forbidding bailed-out firms from laying off their workers. This arrangement would not only allow the hotelier-in-chief to plow public money into his companies and those of his cronies but also enable those firms to spend our governments dollars on maintaining outsize executive compensation instead of retaining employees.
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Varaddem
(431 posts)The big corporations got more?