Coronavirus (non political)

[SolidSnake84]

Originally Posted by SunnySide

Schools - I imagine a vaccine will be needed before things go back to normal re school and after school care etc. There has to be an end point to this, right?

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President Donald Trump is throwing a big wrench into negotiations between the White House and Senate Republicans over the next coronavirus relief bill by demanding a payroll tax cut be included and funding for testing be reduced or cut completely.

“Not a fan of that, I’ve made that pretty clear,” Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said of the payroll tax cut proposal. “I don’t think it’s something that changes anyone’s behavior and has trust fund implications. I just think there are better ways to do it.”

Republicans are trying to get on the same page before they start negotiating with Democrats before they leave for a month-long August recess.

Republican senators also denounced any attempt by the White House to cut funding for coronavirus testing.

“My view is, we should do whatever we need to do to make sure we have adequate tests,” Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Health Committee, said. “All roads to open school, opening, going back to work, child care, lead through testing.

Funds for testing: Senate Republicans are pushing back on the administration’s idea to cut funding for coronavirus testing.

“Well, I think that's a that's going to be a priority for our members, for sure,” Thune said. Alexander told reporters “I believe that we should fund testing as generously as it needs to be funded.”

Blunt, who has been working with Alexander to increase testing capabilities, told reporters “I just think that’s wrong” to cut funding, citing a new rapid test the National Institutes of Health is working on that will need increased funding in the next bill. “It’s going to take more money to quickly focus in on those tests and have them ready, by the time, hopefully, by the time school starts,” he said.

Meanwhile, Meadows told reporters “How would they even know what funding for testing is?” when told Republican senators want to increase funds.

Increased unemployment benefits: Republicans aren’t a fan of extending the $600 per week increased unemployment payments and neither is the administration, but Democrats are pushing for it.

“Obviously it will be a negotiation between the Republicans, Democrats and the White House,” Thune said. “ I can’t imagine a scenario where extending it at the current level would happen.”

Stimulus checks: Republicans are torn over more direct payments, but the administration wants it.

“Nothing is final. But I suspect that there will, there's a high level of interest in doing something more to help people, particularly on the lower end of the income scale,” Thune said. “But I think the last version of this cost somewhere on the order of $300 billion, and there'll be a plug in there to help people and whether that's payroll tax, or, you know, the direct checks, checks, or what form that takes, I'm not sure.”

Grassley favors stimulus checks over payroll tax cuts.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-thr...030957273.html

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Payroll tax cut -- takes directly away from Social Security. As a 41 year old who has worked his entire working eligible life and paid into the system ... dont continue to rob me. This would only help people already employed, the more you make the more it helps you.

if they cut the payroll tax by 2% and I make just over 100k a year, that benefits me (who doesnt need it) much more than someone who makes 43k.

Stimulus checks - sounds like it will go to people making less than 40K or so a year. Id rather just continue raising the debt and go with stimulus checks vs taking away from Soc Sec even though that would benefit me

Defund or reduce testing - i dont understand this. Dont we want and need rapid testing as a first step towards opening schools back up, being able to contact trace? I think they increase funding for testing not reduce or defund.

They've walked back the idea of having the cut-off point for checks being people who make under 40K a year. Average median income for a typical american family is around 63K. If they cut off at 40K, then way less than half of american families would receive the benefit. They want the next package to be able to help everyone, or as close to everyone as possible.

I have heard both Democratic and Republican talking points on potentially too much testing. Governors from both sides have pointed out how so many people are clogging up the test queues that don't have any symptoms, and the tests come back negative. So many people are getting tested that probably really don't need it. So now some states are starting to prioritize testing for the sick / people showing visible symptoms, and I think that is how it should have been from the beginning.

As far as is there an end point to this? The US will probably be battling this for years to come. Even after a Vaccine comes out at the end of this year, it would take months to inoculate the entire country. So let's assume that everything continues going well (fingers crossed), and we get a vaccine by the end of 2020. 2021 would be mostly spent trying to inoculate as many people as possible. No way you could get the whole country vaccinated in six months. So by 2022, you have the majority of people vaccinated, and now you are watching the case numbers every day start to tick down. 2023 you have low case numbers, or low enough that schools and such are allowed to open again. So i think that is when you would see a return to "normal", or as normal as possible. There is a whole lot of people, i'd say probably more than half, that don't want things to be "normal" again for safety reasons, so it's hard to say what the "new normal" will look like when this is all over.