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By Mark Gruenberg
WASHINGTON—With events moving quickly towards yet another economic stimulus bill hitting Capitol Hill, progressive lawmakers and groups have banded together and are lobbying hard to ensure the measure puts people, not corporate interests, first.
But they have one big obstacle to overcome: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is determined the next economic relief bill contains $250 billion for so-called “small businesses,” and smaller sums sent to hurting hospitals and to states and cities who have seen their revenues disappear – and nothing at all for workers.
The measure is expected to hit Congress by the end of the week of April 24, following behind three earlier laws, notably, the $2.2 trillion economic relief bill solons passed and GOP President Donald Trump grumbled about, then signed on March 18. He then took credit for it in big letters and a photo splashed on the White House website.
That measure was designed to blunt the economic crash resulting from massive closures ordered to cure or halt the “community spread” of the coronavirus pandemic. As of the morning of April 20, the coronavirus had sickened 749,666 people in the U.S., and 35,012 had died.
The closures also threw 22 million people out of jobs so far, shooting the U.S. jobless rate up over 10 percent, the Economic Policy Institute calculates. That hit led to...
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