A new COVID “relief” bill has passed through the Senate and the House and is sitting on President Biden’s desk. This bill exceeds the omnibus bill from December with a $1.9 trillion price tag. In other words, between these two bills, and in less than three months, the government is earmarking roughly $3.3 trillion to be spent. This new relief bill is a bit more focused on actual COVID relief than the omnibus bill, but still has some questionable appropriations.
One target of relief is colleges, universities, and students, which are being allocated a total of $39.6 billion. At least half of this amount is going to emergency financial aid for students to pay for their own housing and food in the form of grants. The remainder is for the institutions to cover lost revenue due to the precautionary measures.
People who want free college aren’t going to like this. First of all, these institutions SHOULD have plenty of reserves for times like this. It should be expected that places of higher learning practice safe, conservative fiscal habits. The amount of tuition collected in pandemic-free years, as well as state and federal aid and donations from alumni, should be enough to make a nice rainy day fund. If we assume that this money is being given without the obligation of repayment, then we can expect the money to come back to the government in some way (higher taxes). If we assume that this money is acting as a loan from the government to help out the schools, then guess what? No free college. And probably higher tuition.
There is also $2 billion set aside to help fund federal agencies to arm themselves with modern IT and cybersecurity “to effectively and securely deliver” COVID aid and information. Computers can’t catch COVID—it’s a different kind of virus. While they say the money is to help the government keep up with vaccines and remote working, to this writer it appears as a thinly-veiled ruse to tack on more defense spending without actually calling it “defense spending.”
Another head scratcher is the unspecified amount of relief heading to the aviation manufacturing industry. This industry is said to account for almost 2% of the GDP of our country. Maybe it does. Yet the oil and gas industry is left out of direct relief, and accounted for 8% of the GDP in 2017. While that percentage has surely gone down with the rest of the GDP, it’s probably safe to assume it is still higher than aviation manufacturing. Gasoline and “other energy goods” account for more than 1% alone.
When a company sees a downturn in their business, they must adapt to survive. Mom and pop companies do this all the time. It’s nothing new. The government shouldn’t be sending money to these companies to help them retain employees if laying off employees is what will keep the company in business. It’s not a nice thing to say or do, but as someone who was laid off from the oilfield, this writer believes it’s right. Workers who find themselves without jobs are not helpless children, they are adults who can also adapt to survive.
If the federal legislators really wanted to help the American people out, they would quit spending money. This country needs to get back to normal, and burning through a trillion dollars and some change every few months is not the way to go. Our state governments need to work towards opening back up and helping their own citizens and businesses. Colleges running out of money? Open them up without restriction and let apprehensive students and teachers stay home. Aviation manufacturing jobs at risk? Open up the states and encourage tourism and travel. Anything would be better than the government’s current trend.
Sources:
Bayou Observant 