09 May 2020

In a World of Contemptible People, Nancy Pelosi Shines

While Nancy Pelosi is studiously avoiding progressive proposals to help everyone, she is planning to extend bailout money to lobbying organizations.

Nancy Pelosi is using the shutdown of Congress to promulgate her agenda without a nod to progressives, and now she is trying to throw federal money to the lobbyists.

Seeing as how Pelosi has the first Democratic Party opponent in the general election in years, as a result of California's jungle primary, it would be a very good time to donate to Shadid Buttar's campaign.

I get that she's an effective Speaker of the House, she knows how to count to 218, but she is a disgrace to the party:
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Meanwhile, Pelosi has been talking about what she’ll add to the next bill, and it’s relatively unconstrained by wish lists. One of the elements is changing the eligibility standards for PPP small business loans to include 501(c)(4) and (c)(6) nonprofit organizations. You might know (c)(6) organizations by another name: lobbyists. Unbelievably, K Street has asked for a bailout and is on the road to getting it. I mean lobbyists are good at lobbying, I guess.

As far as I can tell, lobbyists have not stopped lobbying amid the crisis. There’s been a “frenzy” of lobbying around Mitch McConnell’s desire for a corporate liability shield from coronavirus-related lawsuits, for example. Why do high-powered lobby shops need a free $10 million per firm, exactly? Also, PPP will be out of money by the time any bill passes. Does tweaking eligibility signal giving more to this program, in part to just shovel money at lobbying firms?

Meanwhile, Jayapal’s bill to guarantee payroll support from the government for the duration of the crisis was “very worthy of consideration,” said Pelosi. That’s code for “nice work but it’s not getting in the bill.”

The House Democratic slogan is “for the people.” And that’s selectively true. Pelosi listens to some people, powerful people. And she pays lip service to others. She does this because she knows she can get away with it. There’s been essentially no dissent from those on the losing end of that equation. The House still doesn’t even have remote voting in place, and caucuses are doing Zoom calls rather than official hearings. Hundreds of members of Congress representing hundreds of millions of people have been disenfranchised. If there’s state and local government aid in a future bill (if it ever happens), progressives are going to shrug and support something with a lobbyist bailout in it. You can see it now.
Seriously, the members of her district need to toss her geriatric ass out of Congress.

Her policy of waiting until the Republicans f%$# up so badly that she gets a majority is doing long term damage to the party and the nation.

Seriously, just donate to donate to Shadid Buttar's campaign.

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