9 Things You Need to Know About the $1.4 Trillion Fiscal Year 2021 Omnibus and $900 Billion COVID-19 Package

From The Daily Signal.com (Dec. 21):

Here are nine things you need to know about Monday’s omnibus package, which was passed by the House and Senate.

1. It Was Developed Behind Closed Doors in the 11th Hour

While signing the fiscal year 2018 omnibus spending bill, President Donald Trump warned Congress: “I will never sign another bill like this again. I’m not going to do it again. Nobody read it. It’s only hours old. Some people don’t even know what is in—$1.3 trillion—it’s the second largest ever.”

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2. The Nondefense Spending Levels Are Inflated and Gimmicked

In total, this package provides a total of $1.4 trillion in discretionary appropriations. The 12-bill appropriations omnibus uses spending levels set by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019.

While this does not come as a surprise, that does not mean the spending level is appropriate. Instead, it demonstrates a refusal by members of Congress to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars.

The 2019 spending deal significantly increased defense and nondefense spending by a total of $153 billion above the fiscal year 2021 caps originally set by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

Worse, legislators are using accounting gimmicks to further inflate the amount of nondefense spending. The most important of these has to do with Changes in Mandatory Programs, or CHIMPs. This gimmick allows fake “savings” in mandatory programs, such as moving a payment from one year to the next, to offset more discretionary spending within the caps.

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3. The COVID-19 Relief Package Has Too Much Waste, Little Meaningful Response

Rather than allowing the vitally important discussion of COVID-19 response to take place as its own legislation, congressional leaders have chosen to prioritize convenience and political leverage over proper deliberation by attaching it to the “must-pass” omnibus package.

The $900 billion COVID-19 relief section of the omnibus is badly flawed. The Heritage Foundation recently released a new report detailing many of these problems. Among them:

• A lack of focus on COVID-19 rapid self-tests. Congress should demand urgent action from the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, starting by directing them to clear away all regulatory barriers to rapid self-tests so that individual Americans and their families can regularly and quickly get the information they need about their COVID-19 status.
• Counterproductive unemployment benefit boosts. Extended and increased unemployment benefits are not warranted nationwide given that the unemployment rate is 6% or lower in half of states, and higher benefits lead to more unemployment. Further, expanding federal unemployment benefits makes it easier for state and local governments to impose crushing restrictions that are not grounded in science, hurting businesses, schools, and communities.
• More business loans that have proven ineffective. While the impulse to preserve jobs is understandable, the Paycheck Protection Program cost over $100,000 per job saved based on several studies. Worse, the program was not properly targeted, creating inequalities between businesses. These loans also make it easier for state and local governments to justify overly restrictive lockdowns.
• Unnecessary handouts to school districts. Spending per student on K-12 education has exploded over the last several decades in real terms, and private schools have largely reopened without the level of expense that this package envisions.
• Politically motivated industry bailouts. Heavily unionized industries still wield disproportionate political influence, and the COVID-19 package would give sweetheart deals to unionized industries such as airlines, transit agencies, and the Postal Service. Airlines are not the only industry hurt by the pandemic and should not receive special treatment. Transit agencies have bloated payroll costs and are already heavily subsidized. The Postal Service needs to bring costs in line with revenues, which Congress can enable through reform legislation.

In addition, the COVID-19 relief section now includes untargeted and unnecessary $600 stimulus checks. The checks will be sent without regard to unique COVID-19 impacts, including to the more than 93% of workers who are fortunate enough to still be employed. [read more]

The rest of the bullet points:

1. It Gives Sweetheart-Deal Tax Extenders to Special Interests
2. It Enables the Government to Interfere in the Energy Market
3. It Rightfully Ends Surprise Medical Billing—but Creates a New Class of Rate-Setting Bureaucrats
4. It Wisely Winds Down the Federal Reserve’s Emergency Authority
5. It Will Increase Defense Stability
6. It Defends Key Pro-Life Policies That the Left Have in Its Crosshairs

Other articles on the bill:

• Why Six Senate Republicans Voted against the COVID Relief Bill
• Spending in Latest COVID Bill Based on Feelings, Not Facts
• 8 Things You Must Know About Deeply Flawed COVID-19 Package
• 6 Things to Know About Democrats’ COVID-19 Package
  
• Biden stimulus bill: tax relief for wealthy, subsidies for high-tax states, critics say
• Senate blocked from adding $15 minimum wage provision to COVID aid package
  
• Some families could get more than $14,000 in new Covid relief. It’s looking more and more like universal basic income
  
• What to Cut? Plenty
  
• Biden’s COVID relief bill is chock full of anti-white reverse racism