Thread by @RepDonBeyer

A late night observation, as the House debates the American Rescue Plan.

My Republican colleagues keep justifying their opposition to this desperately needed, wildly popular relief bill by repeating one particular lie.

It's about state and local funding. Here's the deal--
1/

All night House Republicans have called the American Rescue Plan "a blue state bailout," "corrupt," "a progressive wish list," it only spends "9% of its funds" on relief.

They couldn't be more wrong. States and localities are on the front lines of this pandemic and need help. 2/

Nearly a year ago the team of economists and policy analysts I lead at @JECDems identified federal aid to state and local governments as a crucial need to contain the pandemic. Republicans ignored us. State budget deficits - and case counts - exploded. 3/ jec.senate.gov/public/index.c…

State and local revenues got crushed early on as businesses closed. Some have seen recent improvement, especially states, but many are still hurting badly. brookings.edu/blog/up-front/…

It's hitting services and public sector jobs across the country hard. 4/ wsj.com/articles/state…

This has led to massive budget cuts to services like mental health and the social safety net that protects the most vulnerable. Public health is a big part of state and local budgets, especially Medicaid. Two other major expenses seeing big budget cuts: education and transit 5/

The easiest way for state and local governments to save money is to lay off their workers -- and that's what they are doing.

State and local public sector workers are the biggest employment sector in the country, and they've lost over 1.3 MILLION jobs during this pandemic.
6/

These job losses are like if the largest private company in the country laid off its entire American workforce.

That's teachers, firefighters, public health workers, and yes, police. Republicans who kept us from stopping these job losses all through 2020 defunded police. 7/

So when you hear Republicans object to a "blue state bailout" please remember the 1.3 million American jobs lost. Many more could follow if Congress does not help.

This isn't just "blue states," that's a lie, it's absolutely blue and red states both. 8/ nytimes.com/2020/12/04/bus…

Red states are also on the front lines of delivering health care and fighting the pandemic, they lost revenue, they cut services, they laid workers off, they are having trouble reopening schools, and they saw big budget shortfalls and made big cuts.

It's just a plain fact. 9/

Most Republicans are saying massive state budget shortfalls have nothing to do with their ability to respond to a pandemic or get their schools open safely. If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.

In fairness a few admit the truth that these shortfalls do matter. 10/

Outside Congress there is widespread, bipartisan recognition of this problem. Governors and Mayors from both parties are vocal about the urgent need for help from Washington.

It's weird to see Republicans ignore them, they normally say they want more state and local power. 11/

The state and local funding provision WILL help fight the pandemic. It WILL help protect jobs and restore jobs that have been lost.

That's part of the reason this bill is strongly supported by the American people. Even among Republicans. Even Trump's top economic advisor. 12/

And they are complaining about the deficit. Three years ago they spent this exact sum on tax cuts that overwhelmingly went to the wealthy. Most of them now cosponsor a bill to spend billions on a tax cut that only benefits people worth over $11 million 13/

https://twitter.com/RepDonBeyer/status/1326974810610610182

They don't care about deficits. They want to use the pandemic to weaken government to help the wealthy, powerful interests they represent. They don't care how many teachers, police, or firefighters lose their jobs. As Mitch McConnell said, they will just let them go bankrupt. 14/

You should care even if you aren't a public sector worker. 1.3 million people who lost jobs lost their income; that hurts the whole economy, it costs businesses and more jobs. We all benefit from a stronger economy. That's why we need to support state and local governments. 15/15