Sunday School 8/9/20

Can I tell you, my head hurts?

Seriously, watching these classroom sessions today was painful, for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are not the best interviews on the planet. But I did it, I did, and I'm going to share just a little bit from each of them.

First up? Pelosi and Dana Bash on CNN's State of the Union. First off, Pelosi said she agrees with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) who apparently suggested that the president's executive orders, announced from his golf course in New Jersey, are "constitutional slop" - but even though her "constitutional advisors tell (her) they're absurdly unconstitutional," she's more interested in addressing the needs of the American people than in suing over the EOs. And she's hopeful they can resume negotiations.

And that's why we said we will come down a trillion, not that we cut out any of our priorities, but we shorten the length of time in which they would be in effect. And next year, we can extend them again... But we will come down a trillion, you go up a trillion, we will find our common ground here. Let's go to the table.

Bash wondered why Pelosi and the rest of them weren't working all weekend, but Pelosi said the offer is on the table to come back when the other guys want to put up some more money. And specifically on the $600 extra unemployment, Pelosi agreed that she didn't want to back off the $600, but that wasn't the reason for the stalemate.

We're at a stalemate because the Republicans have, from the start, never understood the gravity of the situation that we are in. They have called it a hoax. They have called it -- their -- delay, denial, extortion of this pandemic. And we cannot open our economy or open until -- our schools safely unless we address the pandemic. So, the basic thing is, they have ignored that. The problem has grown. And it has become an enormous economic problem.

Moving on to Mnuchin and Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. Mnuchin said that the president's first choice was that a deal be negotiated with the Dems but when that didn't happen, Mnuchin and Mark Meadows told Trump he had to move forward with executive action so that he could "help American workers and American people."

As to any additional negotiations, Mnuchin said he told both the Speaker and Minority Leader that "any time they have a new proposal" he's willing to listen.

But let me just say, you're right, we agreed with the Democrats. We both want to send more checks to the American workers. We want to send more PPP to those hardest hit businesses. We've said, let's pass legislation on the things that we agree on and knock these off one at a time. And they've refused to do that until they get their trillion dollars for the states.

And, he said, he "spoke to many governors" recently and that

We offered more money for the states. They still have 150 billion from last time. Most of them haven't even used half the money. The governors are saying, we need more money for education. We need help. And the president said, we'll give it to you, but not a trillion dollars.

On the payroll tax cut and Trump saying he'd like to cut the payroll tax if he's re-elected, which led the Dems to say he's going to cut Social Security and Medicare, since that's what the payroll tax funds.  Mnuchin says that's not the case.

There would be an automatic contribution from the general fund to those trust funds. The president, in no way, wants to harm those trust funds. So they'd be reimbursed just as they've always been in the past when we've done these types of things... And you just have a transfer from the general fund. 

And he reiterated that the Dems want to "bail out some states that were poorly managed" with their giant aid to state and local governments. But, he said,

We can deal with in January, if there's ongoing issues, we can pass more legislation. This will be the fifth bill. We don't have to get everything done at once. What we should do is get things done for the American public now, come back for another bill afterwards.

Confident, isn't he?

Finally, Schumer and George Stephanopoulos on This Week. Schumer said the Executive Orders "described in one word, could be paltry; in three words, unworkable, weak, and far too narrow." Using the unemployment benefit EO as an example, he said

...this is an unworkable plan. Most states will take months to implement it, because it's brand-new. It's sort of put together with spit and paste... And, to boot, it depletes the hurricane trust fund to defer this money -- to pay for this money, at a time when we're at the height of hurricane season. So, it makes no sense.

He was equally fond of the payroll tax deferral, it seems. He said that some companies will continue withholding the money because "they don't want their employees to be stuck with a huge bill in December." So - no money pumped into the economy, and he also said that money won't be put into the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, so you better watch out if Trump is re-elected.

Finally, on election interference and new warnings from the Intelligence Community (China's rooting for Biden, Russia's rooting for Trump, and Iran is "also looking for opportunities), Schumer focused on Russia.

...  it is absolutely true that Russia is trying to interfere from public information and public statements. And we are trying, we Democrats are trying to stop it in the defense bill. We want to put tough sanctions on Russia, both before they do something and even more so, Chris Van Hollen, has a bill, bipartisan, I believe this with Marco Rubio to stop it. Trump is resisting. Why does Donald Trump not want to stop Russia from interfering in this election? You have to ask that question. It’s the wellspring of our democracy.

He said he believes that the information should be declassified and shared with the American public, as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has suggested.  And, before the interview ended, he tossed this out to us, the American people.

And they should know one other thing, that these hearings that Johnson and Graham are doing are -- some of it is now, now it’s public, is based on false Russian intelligence about Joe Biden. In other words, false Russian reports about Joe Biden. They should be ashamed of themselves for what they’re doing, letting the Russians manipulate them and us, the American people, or tried to manipulate us.

Consider yourself warned.

Stay safe - continue following the rules - and look for some extra credit tomorrow, if you can take it.

See you around the virtual campus.