As Congress Deadlocks On Stimulus, American Misery Index Grows

Editorial

The Buffalo News (N.Y.)

As negotiators in Congress and the White House continue their political dance around passing a new stimulus package, the pain is multiplying for Americans everywhere.

The economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic has put millions of people out of work and taken a toll on tens of thousands of businesses. Losing one's livelihood can lead to hunger, homelessness, and physical and mental health challenges that trigger the same despair whether you live in a blue state or red.

Plunging further into the red is what New York State's finances have done this year. Now that cities, towns and villages must make their budgets for 2021, the fiscal distress is trickling down. Some will get by with just some belt-tightening while others need significant cuts or tax increases for their municipalities to keep going.

A report in The News this month detailed some of the plans that towns in Erie County are making to deal with drops in revenue. The leaders of Amherst and Orchard Park are proposing sizable tax increases.

Several towns are moving money from their reserves to plug budget holes, some proposing modest tax increases, and nearly all are cutting back on personnel, primarily by keeping empty positions unfilled. West Seneca is keeping its tax rate the same but plans $600,000 in short-term borrowing, Supervisor Gary Dickson told The News.

The fallout has real consequences. Albany is withholding 20% of promised aid. For people with severe disabilities and their families, the consequential loss of assistance may be devastating. Only Washington can fix this in the short run, but only part of Washington is even a little bit interested.

Every day brings a new report out of Washington that a deal seems within reach, but the tensions of our divisive politics, amplified by an angry presidential election campaign, seems to get in the way.

House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, passed a $2.2 trillion relief bill. Pelosi and the Trump administration, represented in the talks by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, have so far been unable to bridge differences on what should be in a package that could pass the Republican-controlled Senate.

Democrats, for example, want to restore the federal government's temporary $600 add-on to states' weekly unemployment benefits, to last through January. The White House has offered a $400 benefit.

Mnuchin has proposed $300 billion in aid for states and municipalities. Democrats have asked for $436 billion.

President Trump bristles at the request for municipal aide, saying of Democrats, "all they want to do is bail out their badly run cities and states."

Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, is a leader of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, which has been trying to bridge the gap between Republicans and Democrats on a new bill. The caucus on Sept. 15 put forward its own stimulus plan, hoping it can form the basis for an agreement in Congress. Reed told Fox News this month that "we are within inches of getting this done," and called on the White House and congressional negotiators to keep talking.

The Problem Solvers' efforts may or may not produce a breakthrough, but its members should be commended for trying to advance the ball toward the goal line.

If Mnuchin and Pelosi were left alone to negotiate, they would likely be able to reach agreement, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his colleagues in the Republican conference have other ideas. Pressured by its ultraconservative wing, Senate Republicans have refused to budge on a stimulus, citing worries about government expansion and the growth of federal debt. For strictly political reasons, McConnell has warned Trump not to agree to a stimulus package before the election. This is "destroy the village in order to save it" reasoning that we hoped had gone out of style after the Vietnam War.

Some wealthier Americans are doing better than ever, despite the pandemic. But tens of thousands of others are jobless. We have actual bread lines in our nation, people lined up to get handouts from food pantries that can barely keep up with the demand.

Adding to the national debt should never be done indiscriminately, but letting our Covid-19 recession slide into a full-blown depression would have graver consequences. Those are the stakes.

Congress needs to do its job and deliver pandemic aid to individuals, businesses, state and municipalities. Without that help, the crisis -- already worse than it needed to be -- will deepen.

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