RIGHT SPEAK: Massive $1.9 Trillion Bill is a Bailout for Blue States; How Congress Exacerbated the Union Pension Crisis Under the Guise of Coronavirus Relief, and other C-Virus Updates

Massive $1.9 trillion bill is a bailout for blue states:

President Joe Biden’s blue state bailout, which he’s expected to sign Friday, is a monstrosity — so large it leaves America’s states with a surplus after one of the costliest pandemics in history.

The numbers boggle the mind: $195 billion goes to states with no strings attached (except, of course, to ban tax cuts). There’s $130 billion for reopening K-12 schools with no requirement they reopen. Another $25 billion for public housing and $20 billion for public transit. All in, America’s states and cities are seeing a direct windfall north of half a trillion dollars.

State and local governments already collected more dollars in 2020 than at any time in American history. With federal aid, states ended the year in a surplus. In 21 states, tax receipts actually grew year-on-year. AP reports that “California is again swimming in money,” not that that has stopped Gov. Gavin Newsom crying poverty. --->READ MORE HERE

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

How Congress exacerbated the union pension crisis under the guise of coronavirus relief:

By the time this column appears in print, Congress will have passed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. And that’s a shame. As its many critics have pointed out, only 9% of the bill actually goes toward fighting COVID-19.

One of the bill’s many non-COVID-related provisions is an $86 billion unconditional cash giveaway to a select group of multiemployer or union pension plans.

These plans have been grossly underfunded, not because of disease, but because the law allows private-sector unions and employers to make pension promises to workers without requiring them to set aside the funds needed to make good on those promises in the future.

By 2017, years before the COVID-19 pandemic, these plans had already accumulated $673 billion in unfunded liabilities, spread across almost 1,400 plans and 10.8 million workers and retirees. Many of those plans have continued to deteriorate in value even as the S&P 500 has increased more than 50%.

The multiemployer pension system is badly broken and requires a comprehensive fix — not a partial and selective giveaway that encourages further fiscal recklessness. --->READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to related stories and resources:

Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine neutralizes Brazil variant in lab study

Looking for a COVID-19 vaccine? This website may text you when a vaccine is about to go unused

USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates

WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates

YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates

NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.