Analyzing Democrats’ and GOP’s Coronavirus Aid Proposals

While COVID-19 continues to batter America, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill continue to debate over the next round of coronavirus relief measures. And the partisan divide and ideology is strong in this one, with Republicans’ bill strongly favoring businesses and Democrats’ bill favoring worker welfare and safety.

At a glance, here is an overview of what the money is allocated to in both party’s bills and acts that were already passed (like the CARES Act). The following figures are given in billions of dollars.

Clearly, the divide here is stark. Here are a few key differences.

• Democrats want to extend $600/week unemployment checks, while Republicans want to cut it to $200/week.
• Democrats are pushing for worker protections, while Republicans want to give businesses a liability shield for the coronavirus.
• Democrats want more state and local government aid, Medicaid funding, transportation funding, and education funding, while Republicans are only pushing for education funding.
• Republicans would provide money to be used for reopening schools, while Democrats would not.
• Republicans are proposing barely any welfare and support programs (only a very small grant for child care and housing support), while Democrats are proposing 62 times more money for such programs, including hazard pay, food and housing support, child tax credit benefits, etc.
• Democrats are allocating significantly more money to healthcare, especially subsidies to continue health insurance to laid-off workers under COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act).
• To nobody’s surprise, Republicans are once again pushing for major tax cuts to corporations while Democrats’ proposal are much more modest in size.
• Republicans have included funding for a new FBI headquarter and an almost $30 billion increase to the Pentagon’s budget in a coronavirus relief bill.

Regarding stimulus checks, though, this is one section both bills agree on. Both do include a large sum of money set aside for stimulus checks ($300 billion is allocated for this in the Republicans’ proposal while $436 billion is allocated in the Democrats’ proposal). These checks are definitely very important, especially to the underprivileged. Although both offer a check the same size ($1,200), the difference in the sum of the money comes from the Democrats allowing undocumented immigrants to receive money too, as well as increasing the amount of money given to each child (from $500 to $1,200 per child, up to three per family).

Putting politics aside, it is quite baffling to comprehend Republicans’ proposal. A lot of money is allocated to try to reopen the economy and, once again, downplay the pandemic’s severity. For instance, Republicans have claimed that the $600/week checks to the unemployed discourages them from returning to work despite evidence showing otherwise. The priorities are clearly wrong here. Why are we so concerned that a person might be getting more money from unemployment benefits than their normal wage?

Also, there is some evident parliamentary maneuvering going on in the GOP’s bill. Why, in a CORONAVIRUS RELIEF act, have they included money (in the “other” section) for a new FBI headquarter, an extra $30 billion for the Pentagon, and money to build airports? The fact that these were included, therefore, makes us ask: is the true purpose of this bill even to help individuals in need?

With regard to the this section in the Democrats’ bill, it is good that money is being provided to aid student loans. However, to which higher education institutions the money is being provided to and for what purposes remains a question unanswered.

Let’s now take a look at four sections in particular: small business aid, healthcare, safety nets and tax cuts, and aid to state and local governments. These are among the most important issues in these bills, and the funding varies drastically. Firstly, here are the details for state and local government aid.

Here, Republicans have allocated around $105 billion, while Democrats have allocated $1.12 trillion. That is a humongous difference worth taking a look at.

Both parties have allocated a similar amount of money for education, which is a good thing. However, Republicans are trying to favor schools that hold in-person classes. Again, a very irresponsible move on their part (we will discuss school reopening in a future post). Why are Republicans, for the sake of helping Donald Trump keep up his image of “the pandemic is not too bad” putting thousands, if not millions of lives at risk? And why have Republicans not allocated any extra money to local governments to make up for increased pandemic spending?

Now, we need to discuss allocations to healthcare. Republicans have proposed $111 billion, while Democrats have proposed $382 billion. It is good that both bills have allocated funds for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, however, whether or not both bills have allocated enough is a question to be answered. It is also good that Republicans have allocated funds for vaccine development, but bad that they haven’t for support for COVID-19 treatment.

Unfortunately, the question of irresponsibility crops up again in the Republicans’ bill. They have chosen not to extend medical insurance coverage to those unemployed, while Democrats are allocating $98 billion for this. Yes, although we are still a long way away from achieving the desired goal of Medicare for All, this is a step in the right direction. Republicans’ plan to not reimburse those who lost their coverage is just, well, such a “Republican” thing to do of prioritizing businesses over people, which can be clearly seen in the next section: small business aid.

Here, Republicans are proposing $158 billion for small business aid, while Democrats are proposing none at all. It is also important to note that in previous bills, like the CARES Act, this section received the most funding, with $1.1 trillion allocated in total.

Although the Democrats have allocated money to people to ensure that even if they lose their jobs, they won’t be completely out of luck, this is a section in which the Republicans’ bill is better. Giving money to small business via the Paycheck Protection Program is a good thing, and is also consistent with conservative ideology. However, more clarity is needed with regard to this program. For example, to which businesses exactly is the money going to? It seems likely, as in the previous round, that Republicans want to give money to big corporations (like with tax breaks).

The last section we will look at in detail is the money allocated for social and welfare programs (“safety net” programs). To the underprivileged, this is where the Democrats’ bill really shines. In typical GOP fashion, they have allocated barely anything ($18 billion) in this category, while Democrats have allocated $736 billion.

Consistent with Democrats’ push for better welfare programs and aid to the poor, this makes sense. They have included housing support far beyond what the GOP bill is offering, child tax credit benefits, and increased food assistance to programs like SNAP. The elimination of the SALT cap is a provision to remove the $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes in the next two years. Very simply put, this could mean that individuals pay less tax.

Again, it is also baffling as to why Republicans are so against welfare programs to help the poor.

Hopefully, both parties will be able to work out a compromised bill that has the best of both worlds, and let’s hope this is done as soon as possible to ensure deadlines from the CARES Act don’t pass before this new legislation is enacted.

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YOUR CORONAVIRUS REMINDER:

There are 4,666,027 (+60,817) total coronavirus cases (1,468,689 recovered) and 154,841 total fatalities in the United States as of August 2, 2020.

Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Practice social distancing (six feet distance). Avoid crowds. Help save lives.  

Note: On 7/24/20, we changed our source for COVID-19 data to use official data from the COVID Tracking Project and Johns Hopkins University. This resulted in an approximate -100,000 total case change and a -3,000 death change, as the data from the aforementioned sources, though more accurate, are updated less frequently than the previous source. This also resulted in our data differing from the data provided by the coronavirus tracker widget below. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.