Amid reports that Republicans are asking for a $400B corporate bail out fund to be administered by Secretary Mnuchin at his discretion, Pelosi and Schumer need to shut this down immediately. There are two main reasons:
1) To give the GOP $400B to dole out in an election year with no limits on campaign spending. Corporations will lavish billions on the GOP to get to the front of that line. It is giving Trump and his minion unprecedented power over Federal money. With the corruption they have shown to date and the disdain for ANY congressional oversight, this is nuts.
2) How much of this discretionary money will go to bail out Trump personally and others in the government who refused to divest their businesses. Secretary Ross, Devoe, Kushner, etc. Anyone in the Senior Administration who has a significant business interest must have that business excluded from this program. that is anti-corruption 101.
If Pelosi and Schumer accept this program, NO MATTER WHAT THEY GET IN RETURN, it is a failure of leadership.
If the fund is deemed necessary, let it be composed of a committee of Equal numbers of Dems and Republicans, answerable in weekly reporting to Congress, not permitted to ignore subpoenas and requiring a majority vote for each individual corporate bailout.
The GOP must be made to accept that the Dems have an equal seat at the table on financial bailouts and Pelosi and the House are our leverage to make that happen. I hope they are tough enough and confident enough in the American people understanding what they are doing, to hold the line on this. Unfortunately, the past, particularly with Schumer, doesn’t offer me a ton of hope. Pelosi was good on the shutdown though. She needs to be even tougher this time.