The $ 900 billion delayed deal announced by Congress on Sunday offers some rare good news during the holiday season of a brutal year and a measure of short-term aid to laid-off workers and closed businesses affected by economic and health crises.
The most optimistic interpretation of the agreement is that, despite a tortured trial, a deeply divided Capitol Hill eventually sailed on a path to consensus, pushed by a core of more moderate bipartisan senators who catalyzed the compromise in an honorable manner. .
Steps to expand unemployment benefits, make $ 600 incentive payments to some adults, pick up food stamps and send money to food pantries, speed up vaccine deployment, and keep businesses afloat will make a tangible difference in life US. But it is not as if Congress had a choice, and its delay has significantly aggravated the pain of many Americans.
The deprivation caused by the latest Covid-19 increase came at a time when some unemployment benefits had already expired, and many citizens were facing evacuation or were hungry. The new restrictions caused by the out-of-control pandemic are stifling business and threatening to reverse a recovery halt.
And any ideas that Sunday’s discovery is a model for a less dysfunctional Washington during a new presidency next year are undermined by how the bitter process of the past few weeks has revealed vast ideological loopholes, suggesting that disconnection into a system politically fractured is becoming more and more extreme. This was confirmed by the fact that Congress must continue to adopt short-term spending bills to avoid government shutdown.
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