The Patriot Post® · COVID Relief and Government Malfeasance

By Larry Craig

Average Americans wonder why it is so difficult for Washington to help average Americans through one of our most difficult years ever.

Our government has forced the shutdown of thousands of businesses, forcing millions of people to wonder how they will get by without a regular paycheck.

The most obvious thing Washington could do would be to increase unemployment payments until those businesses could reopen.

Businesses that were forced to close or to work at a limited capacity should receive substantial tax relief, property and otherwise, to help them survive until they can go back to normal.

All this could and should have been done months ago.

So what happened?

Congress refuses to pass short, simple bills directed at specific problems. Any bill it considers is an opportunity to spend money, and this in lawmakers’ minds is their primary responsibility.

They combined the COVID relief bill with the general government appropriations bill, so it is now over 5,500 pages long. There are hundreds of separate issues and items in this bill. This is selfish, shortsighted, and even scandalous. Instead of quickly coming to the aid of the people whose welfare they were elected to serve, they are eager and willing to put their own wishes and wants over that of their constituents.

In reporting this fiasco, it is easy for the news media to insinuate the guilty parties, but I think they tend to miss the mark. I could point fingers as well, but I think it’s best to blame a political culture that we have accepted for generations without resistance that sees the government as the answer to all of our problems, and that answer is always spending more money.

We need to demand that government write only short bills with one main subject, and all amendments to that bill must be related to that one subject. Government aid would then be swift to those who need it, and trust would soon return to our government.

Please visit my blog at poligion1.blogspot.com for articles I have written on politics, culture, and public life.