We’re on the brink of a monstrous economic crash.  We can all see it, and yet we’re almost indifferent.  This is the wrong time to be blasé.  Yes, after that first shock, most stock prices recovered.  My portfolio is doing great, thanks.  But.  Wander outside.  Drive past any retail space near you: strip malls, big outlets, restaurants, that stuff.  See all those empty storefronts?  Count the cheery “Going Out of Business!” signs the remaining stores.  The stock market is not the economy.  Republicans successfully bailed out the big companies who pay their sinecure.  I’m sure they’ll get lucrative think tank positions when they’re voted out of office.  But the rest of our economy – the businesses who don’t issue public stocks – they’re failing left and right.

I suspect part of the problem is that retail businesses don’t fade reliably, they burn out in a flash.  Look at any store that’s failing.  What are they doing?  Selling the remaining inventory for whatever they can get.  They usually get a flurry of customers, and sometimes have to hire a few more salespeople to cover the load.  If you back up far enough that you can’t see the bankruptcy signs, it all looks like a growing business.  Until they finally lock the doors.

How, I wonder, can our Republican leaders not see the miles-long lines for food kitchens that form every week, and in every major city?  Remind you of anything from the past?

No, we’re not succeeding when we’re in our 20^th week of over a million new unemployment applications.  We’re not ‘out of the woods’ when we have more than ten percent unemployment.  Our economy depends on a thriving middle class to buy all that stuff our corporations make.  Our local, state, and federal governments only function from the wealth of their citizens. Even the yotta-rich get their income from a thriving middle class.  

Instead, we’re watching the vultures pick the last scraps of meat from the carcass and pretending it’s a wonderful life.  Unemployment dropped! Things must be looking up!!

Republicans always lavish federal money on large corporations and the rich, and their initial version of the first CARES Act was in that mold. Do they think we don’t notice that the GOP answer to any of God’s ills is to cut taxes?  That only matters to people who already rake in obscene amounts of money.  When challenged, Republicans fail-over to their trickle-down theories.  I guess they assume the newly endowed hyper-rich will employ thousands of us to mop their floors and scrub their fancy toilets. It’s so hard to get good help these days.

I’d envisioned a slightly higher career trajectory for my children than ‘lawn care.’ Are Republicans really willing to destroy the economy so their patrons can get cheaper servants?

Thankfully, Democrats forced Republicans to expand aid to the unemployed and to small businesses.  They suspended evictions and tried to keep people from being laid off.  And it worked. Sure, the Trump administration fostered massive corruption when they handed out the money.  They’re Republicans, after all.  But the cash that slipped through their fingers lifted a lot of small businesses, stalling off imminent failure.  It was life support, not a stimulant, but the support that got through seems to have held off the economic crash so far.

I suppose that success is why Republicans let the CARES aid expire.  House Democrats passed their continuation bill three months ago.  In contrast, Republicans sat on everything (except their politically-driven judicial nominations).  Too busy for the general welfare? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell smugly denounced any more need for action.  Even now, when everyone can see that the American economy is a disaster with a burning fuse, McConnell won’t bother to show up to negotiations.  He waves them indifferently toward the White House.  It isn’t his problem, apparently.

And it’s all politically nonsensical.  Remember: no matter how stupid or ideologically pure, every Senator and Congressperson can count.  They all know that the Senate would pass an aid extension.  They know a majority of Americans want it.  And they probably know their political stance (bored incompetence) isn’t working.  Whether the Republican Party survives the next election depends on them doing a much better job, visibly and quickly.

McConnell won’t allow it.  He pretends he’s following the “majority of the majority” rule. (If the majority of his party doesn’t approve, it doesn’t get a vote.)  That would already be a miserable policy, but even that’s a lie.  McConnell sits, watching the flames burn because he’s tied himself too closely to President Trump.  He won’t be seen gainsaying anything from his Dear Leader, no matter how terrible the consequences. 

I will not cut corners here.  McConnell and his Republican Party allowed more Americans to die during the pandemic. Political points mattered more than governance.  McConnell knew the disease would disproportionately affect people in Kentucky.  But the head of the Senate sat there anyway, failing Kentucky, vowing to block any more unemployment benefits.  They’re just lazy. Giving them money means they won’t get jobs. 

Do Republicans have a secret formula for squeezing 30 million unemployed people into 5 million open jobs. Oh, and it was Republicans who cut money from food stamps.

Again, it’s too late to be kind.  Republicans are killing us all.  Five million infected and Republicans still won’t take federal action against the pandemic.  They pretend there is no Climate Crisis even as it kills us.  And now they seem unable to stop themselves from walking off that fiscal cliff and into the next economic crash.   

Maybe we’ll be lucky, but the Republican Party isn’t just playing chicken with the usual business cycle.  They’re facing a once-in-a-century depression.  It is another disaster that will disproportionately affect poor people in places like Kentucky.  The GOP has no idea what to do, so they spend their time blocking Democrats. That’s par for Trump National, apparently.

The economic crash will be deeper than we think.  It’s closer than it should be, too.  And without CARES or something similar, nothing is standing between America and the next Great Depression.  We don’t have more than a week or two left to act.