YTD COVID Relief could surpass $10T
- Dan Barry
- Jul 30, 2020
- 2 min read
How much have we spent already? I believe when we add in the Fed Reserve we were near 7T of total economic stimulus and recovery allocated. I’ll have to go back and check. Now it appears that the GOP is prepared to sign off on another 1T and the Dems are pushing for 3.4T. That’s north of $10,000,000,000,000.00. Now that is a lot of zero’s.
Economic indications show that inflation is on the way as we continue to print money. But hold on, don’t we have to pay this back? The best stimulus is a job and a taxpayer. We need to safely and quickly get people back to work. To get back to work we need in-person schools. Again safely.
Conservatives need to watch this carefully as the Democrats hold the cards. Pelosi has played the ole fashioned four Corners to slow this down till the clock runs out holding the GOP over a barrel. In the balance is Unemployment Insurance Extension, another round of Checks to taxpayers, and funding support for COVID. There is extraordinary pressure for State and Local Government relief. I’m not sure how the NCGA Leadership feels about it. My bet is they look to see other states with their hand out, they will raise theirs as well. Let’s hope that they use it to pay off capital debt or get some roads built. Certainly, nothing that creates recurring operational costs like salaries or bonuses to government employees which increases employee benefit plan liabilities.
I am hearing a rumor about this now that the Union County Board of Commissioners gave certain employees a $5,000 one time bonus. If my calculation is correct, its was $1.5m - $2.0m. It will be interesting to know if senior county staff was included. These bonuses are a very large percentage of compensation. While the rest of us are taking pay cuts, forfeiting annual bonus, having a retirement plan contribution frozen, and our own plans put on hold. While 26m friends and neighbors are unemployed - Govco gives out bonuses. This money is not free!
Watch what happens in Congress closely. This bill is getting larger and larger.
“While Republicans want to cap the next relief bill at $1 trillion, Democrats are calling for $3.4 trillion in new stimulus, with $1 trillion set aside just for cash-strapped state and local governments. Conservatives in the Senate are adamantly against adding trillions more to the exploding deficit.”
Hyperinflation or Default? Take your pick! I'd rather have Trump and Kudlow managing this than Biden and whoever ... Krugman probably.
Krugman is proof positive that a double digit IQ is not a disqualifier to the Nobel Prize Committee.