#literally type the U.S. should not expect to impose its laws on other countries

[ffwritingortheattempt]

I watched the second season of Birdigerton and have been reading some fanfic Kate x Anthony fanfic. And now my school assignments are started to sound like I live in the Regency era.

#literally type the U.S. should not expect to impose its laws on other countries #nor suppose that its laws are superior to other states’s legislation. #its for an international law course #this is about how in 2007 U.S. attorneys argued in British court that U.S.had right to KIDNAP foreign citizens abroad #they cited u.s. Supreme Court decision from Alvarez-Machain case #bridgerton #anthony x kate

[itsfinancethings]

Less than five weeks ago, a deeply divided Senate acquitted President Donald Trump almost entirely along partisan lines. Now that same polarized body must come together to reach a consensus quickly on a massive spending plan to bring relief to the millions of Americans suffering from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Normally, Congress spends weeks — and often months — hashing out this type of legislation. But as the disease spreads across the country, simultaneously infecting thousands of Americans and ravaging businesses, lawmakers are moving to provide massive aid to Americans and stabilize the U.S. economy within days. The heightened sense of urgency and the glimmers of bipartisanship around the effort underscore just how imposing the economic and financial threats of COVID-19 are, and how alarmed federal authorities are as the disease brings whole sectors of the economy to a halt.

“We occasionally have these great crises and, when they occur, we are able to rise above our normal partisanship and, in many times, our normal positions because these are not normal times,” McConnell told reporters in a briefing room that was rearranged to put physical distance between participants. “This is not an ordinary situation so it requires extraordinary measures.”

Earlier this month, Congress passed an $8.3 billion spending package as the virus was popping up in some states but its reach within the U.S. was still unknown. That funding, which was more than triple what the Trump Administration initially requested, was meant to help government agencies in halting the spread and to fund vaccine developments.

But as the number of infections rose, it became rapidly evident more was needed. On Tuesday, the Senate was poised to pass a second major stimulus package, which the House sent over on Monday evening, offering economic relief to Americans whose lives have been disrupted by newer developments like restaurant closures, the shuttering of entire states’ schools and self-imposed quarantines. Discussions are also underway for a third bill — likely with the highest price tag — that would offer assistance to struggling small businesses and could also include sending individual checks to Americans. All told, the total cost to taxpayers could exceed $1 trillion.

Tuesday’s early optimism over two potential big stimulus packages becoming law gave the suffering stock market a boost. But the Senate ended the day without a vote on one package to help nervous workers and businesses, and with no explicit assurance lawmakers would imminently pass the other.

The House passed a relief bill with overwhelming bipartisan support on March 14, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had to work out an additional “technical correction” that ended up scaling back its paid leave provision — a sticking point during negotiations over the bill. The House unanimously approved the new version on Monday.

Under the version of the bill proposed by House Democrats on March 11, full-time workers would have been eligible to accrue seven days worth of sick leave on a permanent basis, and 14 additional days of paid leave during public health emergencies. Republican lawmakers, though, were concerned those benefits would impose a burden on small businesses and lead to layoffs. In the final version, there is no permanent sick leave provision, and businesses with fewer than 50 employees would be able to ask the Department of Labor for exemptions to the two weeks of coronavirus-related leave included in the final version.

The bill also includes free coronavirus testing for anyone who needs it, expands programs like food assistance for children who rely on school meals and employment insurance and increases Medicaid funds for overworked state and local governments.

Even with the final tweaks, Republican Senators expressed misgivings about the paid-leave component of the bill. Some of McConnell’s rank-and-file members had hoped to amend the House’s version and expand on it as Tuesday began. But McConnell told lawmakers that help for hotels that are suddenly emptied can be part of the next, bigger stimulus package. “We all know a bigger proposal is necessary,” McConnell said as he told colleagues uncomfortable with the House’s $100 billion-plus bill to “gag and vote for it anyway.”

Republican lawmakers appeared poised to heed McConnell’s call. “What they’ve done in the House, I don’t think can be changed by Republicans in the Senate,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, conceding that the Senate would likely just vote on the package and move on to the next one.

But as Tuesday evening wore on, it was evident things were stalled. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, an ally of the White House, proposed an amendment that would give the President authority to transfer funds as necessary and end spending in Afghanistan — a procedural roadblock that was doomed for inevitable failure. It could return for a vote as soon as Wednesday, but there were clear signs not everyone was on board.

“D.C. needs to act a lot more urgently than we usually do,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican. But, he added, “There is a herd mentally around this building right now where a lot of normally smart people are literally saying things like, ‘The most important thing is being fast even if the ideas being advocated for aren’t really ready for primetime and can’t withstand the scrutiny of debate.’ That is a really dumb idea.”

Aides at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue know the bill before the Senate now, whenever it passes, will not be the last measure Congress takes to help Americans weather the pandemic. McConnell has deputized his colleagues into three “task force” operations to draft a follow-up package that could put cash directly into Americans’ pockets, help businesses survive the downturn and enable banks to be able to continue lending. This is where Wall Street and Main Street alike would find help; the airlines alone are asking for $60 billion in assistance.

The politics of such a big package are expected to be fraught. The broad call for unity and urgency did not translate into unanimity; everyone has their own version of what the next and possibly biggest package should look like. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday unveiled a $750 billion package that carried his party’s ambitions for a recovery. Mnunchin offered an $850 billion package, which included some overlaps with Democrats’ requests. And, at the White House, President Donald Trump indicated that the total price tag to taxpayers was going to top $1 trillion.

For now, McConnell is assembling his proposal with only Republican input, and the fast-changing dynamics are making Senators nervous. “This is a Herculean task from a legislative point of view, to craft something this significant with 53 people. It just, you know, can’t be done,” McConnell told reporters.

The final cost could be staggering, particularly for Republicans who usually pride themselves on fiscal responsibility. Republicans, seemingly overnight, shifted their orthodoxy away from small-government, market-based capitalism to full-throated championing of corporate subsidies. Asked what had changed, McConnell likened the situation to others he has faced in the Senate, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the 2008 stock market crash and the 2013 fiscal cliff, which threatened spikes in taxes and massive cuts in government spending.

McConnell told colleagues that they should prepare to stay in Washington for the near future; once dispersed to the states, re-assembling the aged chamber could be a challenge and even a life-threatening exercise. McConnell said he would take precautions, such as longer windows to vote so as to avoid a jumble at doors or crowding on the floor. But he wants his colleagues together.

“We’re not going to leave this building until we get the job done,” Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told reporters at a largely deserted Capitol on Tuesday. “It may take us a few days or a few weeks, but we’re going to get the job done.”

— With reporting by Abby Vesoulis/Columbus, Ohio

#IFTTT #Blogger

[rolandfontana]

U.S. Bans Chinese Supercomputer Companies with Presidents Xi and Trump Set to Talk Trade Next Week

US-China Trade Deal As we have noted in previous posts, the trade war with China goes far beyond the Section 301 tariff action. The New Normal between the United States and China includes a host of U.S. government actions directed at China’s high tech sector, with an export ban under the Department of Commerce Entity List system as one of the most powerful tools.

Huawei was the first target under the Entity List ban and the Department of Commerce just expanded its Entity List to include five Chinese entities that develop supercomputers and supercomputer technology. The reason given for these latest bans is that China uses supercomputers for military purposes which negatively impacts United States national security.

This new ban falls within the traditional use of the Entity List to deal with technology having military uses. Note however that pretty much every high tech product has potential military uses and that just about every high tech Chinese company has at least some relationship with China’s military. This means this type of ban can be used very expansively against China’s high tech, electronics, and telecommunications industrial complex. The implications of these latest bans therefore extend beyond this specific action.

This new Commerce Department ban list can be found here. The list really breaks down into two sets of companies: one owned by Sugon/Dawning (曙光) and the other the Wuxi Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology and its aliases:

Sugon Group.

Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit, including two aliases (Hygon and Chengdu Haiguang Jincheng Dianlu Sheji);

Chengdu Haiguang Microelectronics Technology, including two aliases (HMC and Chengdu Haiguang Wei Dianzi Jishu);

Higon (Hygon), including five aliases (Higon Information Technology, Haiguang Xinxi Jishu, Youxian Gongsi, THATIC, Tianjing Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment, and Tianjing Haiguang Xianjin Jishu Touzi Youxian Gongsi)

Sugon (Shuguang), including nine aliases (Dawning, Dawning Information Industry, Sugon Information Industry, Shuguang, Shuguang Information Industry, Zhongke Dawn, Zhongke Shuguang, Dawning Company, and Tianjin Shuguang Computer Industry);

Wuxi Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology, including two aliases (Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology and JICT).

Sugon is one of the major manufacturers of supercomputers for public use and its product offerings can be seen here. The companies in the Sugon group are majority owned by Sugon and are infected by that ownership. The ownership of Sugon itself is unclear, but it started as a state owned company and the assumption is that it is still controlled by the PRC government. The ban notice justifies including Sugon by stating that “Sugon has publicly acknowledged a variety of military end uses and end users of its high-performance computers.”

The justification for adding Wuxi Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology is more direct. Wuxi Jiangnan is owned by the 56th Research Institute of the General Staff of China’s People’s Liberation Army and as stated in the ban notice, “Its mission is to support China’s military modernization.” This means applications in battlefield communications, satellites, cyber-hacking and cyber-warfare. It is not clear why the U.S. waited so long to add this company to the Entity List.

The impact of the Entity List classification is the same as for Huawei. U.S. companies are prohibited from selling hardware or software or services to the companies named on the list and the ban extends to non-U.S. companies that include these U.S. items in what they sell to the banned Chinese companies. So the impact goes beyond hardware and it extends beyond U.S. borders.

The PRC has been very proud of its  supercomputing advancements. Now we will see whether supercomputing can continue in China without access to U.S. inputs in hardware, software and services.

The timing of these latest bans is significant also in its impacts on the restart of trade negotiations between China and the United States, with Presidents Xi and Trump scheduled to meet next week at the G20 summit in Japan. The purpose of these discussions is supposed to be to attempt to restart negotiations for resolving the Section 301 tariff issue. In a recent post, Does China WANT a Second Decoupling? The Chinese Texts Say That it Does,

I wrote about how the official China press has been indicating China is anything but enthusiastic about reaching a resolution with the United States. Timing this supercomputer ban to be effective on June 24, just four days before the G20 meetings in Osaka, indicates the U.S. also is less than enthusiastic about reaching quick resolution with China. Optimists who see a quick resolution due to the personal “chemistry” between Xi and Trump may want to take these developments into account.

Even before this supercomputer ban, the odds of Presidents Xi and Trump reaching anything resembling an agreement to end the U.S.-China trade war in Osaka were extremely low and they have just decreased even further. The best anyone should be hoping for is an agreement to re-start efforts to reach an eventual agreement, but since this will likely require the U.S. temporarily refrain from increasing tariffs or adding new tariffs, even such an agreement to try to reach a future agreement is not likely.

What happens if nothing happens in Osaka? With the U.S. Federal Reserve having recently issued notice that it will likely reduce interest rates soon, President Trump has been granted increased economic leeway on tariffs and we believe he will take advantage of that.  We see President Trump imposing tariffs on all remaining imports from China, but we expect he will start at 10%, not 25%. We say this because it seems that the brunt of 10% tariffs are being borne by Chinese suppliers and US importers, with very little of that passed on to US end-users. But with 25% tariffs, U.S. end-users will undoubtedly see and feel price increases.

July 2 is the end date for public comments on previously announced tariffs on Chinese goods and that too will free President Trump up to initiate new tariffs. We also think he will want to do so rather quickly so as to escalate the pressure on China to negotiate before the 2020 Presidential election really takes off.

Many believe there will be resolution before the 2020 election so President Trump can go into that election claiming victory. But I tend to think the exact opposite may be true. If President Trump reaches a deal with China, it is virtually certain not to be nearly as good a deal as the United States has been seeking and it will open Trump up to criticism by the Democratic Party nominee that he was not “tough enough” with China. If Trump holds out against China, he does risk weakening the U.S. economy, but he also will be able to claim he needs to be re-elected to finish the fight against China.

Either way, since October of last year, we have been pushing our clients to reexamine their China operations and plans in light of US-China tensions and we fully intend to continue doing so. We remain of the view that a US-China trade deal will — at best — merely slow down the straight-line worsening of relations between these two countries and we believe China-Europe relations will trail what happens between the US and China.

Literally the day before President Trump’s tweet regarding his plan to institute a 25% tariff on another $250 billion of Chinese goods, we wrote a long piece, entitled The US-China Trade War: Winter is Coming, in which we wrote how no trade deal between the United States and China will change much between them and how the trade war will merely go forward on other fronts. We concluded that post (as we have so many other posts) by exhorting foreign companies to look closely at their own business relationships with China:

How though should your business respond to all this? To quote an old investment adage, “the trend is your friend,” and right now the trend is for the West and China to continue decoupling. This means the most important thing for your business is to be cognizant of this and to monitor it. We keep writing about this because we see it as likely to impact nearly all foreign companies that do business with China, even those from countries whose relations with China are much better than those between the United States and China. No matter in what country your company is based, if you do business with the United States — especially if you have your products made in China and then sell them to the United States — your business is at risk of becoming entangled by the decoupling.

If you want to see your company go into China or have its products made by China or increase its China presence, you should be prepared to explain to your company’s decision makers why you believe your business will not fall prey to US-China tensions. If you are having your products made in China, you almost certainly are already looking to reduce your China exposure, but in doing your cost benefit analysis for that, consider whether yours is the sort of business whose sales might increase merely by being able to tell its customers/consumers that your company does no business with China. And yes, this is going to sound self-serving (and it is, but it is also true), you need to more than ever make sure you are not doing anything that might make you an easy target of the Chinese government. In other words, make sure your company is in full compliance with China’s laws, particularly its tax, environmental, employment and bribery laws.

This advice stands.

U.S. Bans Chinese Supercomputer Companies with Presidents Xi and Trump Set to Talk Trade Next Week syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

[itsfinancethings]

March 17, 2020 at 10:39PM

Less than five weeks ago, a deeply divided Senate acquitted President Donald Trump almost entirely along partisan lines. Now that same polarized body must come together to reach a consensus quickly on a massive spending plan to bring relief to the millions of Americans suffering from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Normally, Congress spends weeks — and often months — hashing out this type of legislation. But as the disease spreads across the country, simultaneously infecting thousands of Americans and ravaging businesses, lawmakers are moving to provide massive aid to Americans and stabilize the U.S. economy within days. The heightened sense of urgency and the glimmers of bipartisanship around the effort underscore just how imposing the economic and financial threats of COVID-19 are, and how alarmed federal authorities are as the disease brings whole sectors of the economy to a halt.

“We occasionally have these great crises and, when they occur, we are able to rise above our normal partisanship and, in many times, our normal positions because these are not normal times,” McConnell told reporters in a briefing room that was rearranged to put physical distance between participants. “This is not an ordinary situation so it requires extraordinary measures.”

Earlier this month, Congress passed an $8.3 billion spending package as the virus was popping up in some states but its reach within the U.S. was still unknown. That funding, which was more than triple what the Trump Administration initially requested, was meant to help government agencies in halting the spread and to fund vaccine developments.

But as the number of infections rose, it became rapidly evident more was needed. On Tuesday, the Senate was poised to pass a second major stimulus package, which the House sent over on Monday evening, offering economic relief to Americans whose lives have been disrupted by newer developments like restaurant closures, the shuttering of entire states’ schools and self-imposed quarantines. Discussions are also underway for a third bill — likely with the highest price tag — that would offer assistance to struggling small businesses and could also include sending individual checks to Americans. All told, the total cost to taxpayers could exceed $1 trillion.

Tuesday’s early optimism over two potential big stimulus packages becoming law gave the suffering stock market a boost. But the Senate ended the day without a vote on one package to help nervous workers and businesses, and with no explicit assurance lawmakers would imminently pass the other.

The House passed a relief bill with overwhelming bipartisan support on March 14, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had to work out an additional “technical correction” that ended up scaling back its paid leave provision — a sticking point during negotiations over the bill. The House unanimously approved the new version on Monday.

Under the version of the bill proposed by House Democrats on March 11, full-time workers would have been eligible to accrue seven days worth of sick leave on a permanent basis, and 14 additional days of paid leave during public health emergencies. Republican lawmakers, though, were concerned those benefits would impose a burden on small businesses and lead to layoffs. In the final version, there is no permanent sick leave provision, and businesses with fewer than 50 employees would be able to ask the Department of Labor for exemptions to the two weeks of coronavirus-related leave included in the final version.

The bill also includes free coronavirus testing for anyone who needs it, expands programs like food assistance for children who rely on school meals and employment insurance and increases Medicaid funds for overworked state and local governments.

Even with the final tweaks, Republican Senators expressed misgivings about the paid-leave component of the bill. Some of McConnell’s rank-and-file members had hoped to amend the House’s version and expand on it as Tuesday began. But McConnell told lawmakers that help for hotels that are suddenly emptied can be part of the next, bigger stimulus package. “We all know a bigger proposal is necessary,” McConnell said as he told colleagues uncomfortable with the House’s $100 billion-plus bill to “gag and vote for it anyway.”

Republican lawmakers appeared poised to heed McConnell’s call. “What they’ve done in the House, I don’t think can be changed by Republicans in the Senate,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, conceding that the Senate would likely just vote on the package and move on to the next one.

But as Tuesday evening wore on, it was evident things were stalled. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, an ally of the White House, proposed an amendment that would give the President authority to transfer funds as necessary and end spending in Afghanistan — a procedural roadblock that was doomed for inevitable failure. It could return for a vote as soon as Wednesday, but there were clear signs not everyone was on board.

“D.C. needs to act a lot more urgently than we usually do,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican. But, he added, “There is a herd mentally around this building right now where a lot of normally smart people are literally saying things like, ‘The most important thing is being fast even if the ideas being advocated for aren’t really ready for primetime and can’t withstand the scrutiny of debate.’ That is a really dumb idea.”

Aides at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue know the bill before the Senate now, whenever it passes, will not be the last measure Congress takes to help Americans weather the pandemic. McConnell has deputized his colleagues into three “task force” operations to draft a follow-up package that could put cash directly into Americans’ pockets, help businesses survive the downturn and enable banks to be able to continue lending. This is where Wall Street and Main Street alike would find help; the airlines alone are asking for $60 billion in assistance.

The politics of such a big package are expected to be fraught. The broad call for unity and urgency did not translate into unanimity; everyone has their own version of what the next and possibly biggest package should look like. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday unveiled a $750 billion package that carried his party’s ambitions for a recovery. Mnunchin offered an $850 billion package, which included some overlaps with Democrats’ requests. And, at the White House, President Donald Trump indicated that the total price tag to taxpayers was going to top $1 trillion.

For now, McConnell is assembling his proposal with only Republican input, and the fast-changing dynamics are making Senators nervous. “This is a Herculean task from a legislative point of view, to craft something this significant with 53 people. It just, you know, can’t be done,” McConnell told reporters.

The final cost could be staggering, particularly for Republicans who usually pride themselves on fiscal responsibility. Republicans, seemingly overnight, shifted their orthodoxy away from small-government, market-based capitalism to full-throated championing of corporate subsidies. Asked what had changed, McConnell likened the situation to others he has faced in the Senate, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the 2008 stock market crash and the 2013 fiscal cliff, which threatened spikes in taxes and massive cuts in government spending.

McConnell told colleagues that they should prepare to stay in Washington for the near future; once dispersed to the states, re-assembling the aged chamber could be a challenge and even a life-threatening exercise. McConnell said he would take precautions, such as longer windows to vote so as to avoid a jumble at doors or crowding on the floor. But he wants his colleagues together.

“We’re not going to leave this building until we get the job done,” Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told reporters at a largely deserted Capitol on Tuesday. “It may take us a few days or a few weeks, but we’re going to get the job done.”

— With reporting by Abby Vesoulis/Columbus, Ohio

#IFTTT #Blogger

[itsfinancethings]

Less than five weeks ago, a deeply divided Senate acquitted President Donald Trump almost entirely along partisan lines. Now that same polarized body must come together to reach a consensus quickly on a massive spending plan to bring relief to the millions of Americans suffering from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Normally, Congress spends weeks — and often months — hashing out this type of legislation. But as the disease spreads across the country, simultaneously infecting thousands of Americans and ravaging businesses, lawmakers are moving to provide massive aid to Americans and stabilize the U.S. economy within days. The heightened sense of urgency and the glimmers of bipartisanship around the effort underscore just how imposing the economic and financial threats of COVID-19 are, and how alarmed federal authorities are as the disease brings whole sectors of the economy to a halt.

“We occasionally have these great crises and, when they occur, we are able to rise above our normal partisanship and, in many times, our normal positions because these are not normal times,” McConnell told reporters in a briefing room that was rearranged to put physical distance between participants. “This is not an ordinary situation so it requires extraordinary measures.”

Earlier this month, Congress passed an $8.3 billion spending package as the virus was popping up in some states but its reach within the U.S. was still unknown. That funding, which was more than triple what the Trump Administration initially requested, was meant to help government agencies in halting the spread and to fund vaccine developments.

But as the number of infections rose, it became rapidly evident more was needed. On Tuesday, the Senate was poised to pass a second major stimulus package, which the House sent over on Monday evening, offering economic relief to Americans whose lives have been disrupted by newer developments like restaurant closures, the shuttering of entire states’ schools and self-imposed quarantines. Discussions are also underway for a third bill — likely with the highest price tag — that would offer assistance to struggling small businesses and could also include sending individual checks to Americans. All told, the total cost to taxpayers could exceed $1 trillion.

Tuesday’s early optimism over two potential big stimulus packages becoming law gave the suffering stock market a boost. But the Senate ended the day without a vote on one package to help nervous workers and businesses, and with no explicit assurance lawmakers would imminently pass the other.

The House passed a relief bill with overwhelming bipartisan support on March 14, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had to work out an additional “technical correction” that ended up scaling back its paid leave provision — a sticking point during negotiations over the bill. The House unanimously approved the new version on Monday.

Under the version of the bill proposed by House Democrats on March 11, full-time workers would have been eligible to accrue seven days worth of sick leave on a permanent basis, and 14 additional days of paid leave during public health emergencies. Republican lawmakers, though, were concerned those benefits would impose a burden on small businesses and lead to layoffs. In the final version, there is no permanent sick leave provision, and businesses with fewer than 50 employees would be able to ask the Department of Labor for exemptions to the two weeks of coronavirus-related leave included in the final version.

The bill also includes free coronavirus testing for anyone who needs it, expands programs like food assistance for children who rely on school meals and employment insurance and increases Medicaid funds for overworked state and local governments.

Even with the final tweaks, Republican Senators expressed misgivings about the paid-leave component of the bill. Some of McConnell’s rank-and-file members had hoped to amend the House’s version and expand on it as Tuesday began. But McConnell told lawmakers that help for hotels that are suddenly emptied can be part of the next, bigger stimulus package. “We all know a bigger proposal is necessary,” McConnell said as he told colleagues uncomfortable with the House’s $100 billion-plus bill to “gag and vote for it anyway.”

Republican lawmakers appeared poised to heed McConnell’s call. “What they’ve done in the House, I don’t think can be changed by Republicans in the Senate,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, conceding that the Senate would likely just vote on the package and move on to the next one.

But as Tuesday evening wore on, it was evident things were stalled. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, an ally of the White House, proposed an amendment that would give the President authority to transfer funds as necessary and end spending in Afghanistan — a procedural roadblock that was doomed for inevitable failure. It could return for a vote as soon as Wednesday, but there were clear signs not everyone was on board.

“D.C. needs to act a lot more urgently than we usually do,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican. But, he added, “There is a herd mentally around this building right now where a lot of normally smart people are literally saying things like, ‘The most important thing is being fast even if the ideas being advocated for aren’t really ready for primetime and can’t withstand the scrutiny of debate.’ That is a really dumb idea.”

Aides at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue know the bill before the Senate now, whenever it passes, will not be the last measure Congress takes to help Americans weather the pandemic. McConnell has deputized his colleagues into three “task force” operations to draft a follow-up package that could put cash directly into Americans’ pockets, help businesses survive the downturn and enable banks to be able to continue lending. This is where Wall Street and Main Street alike would find help; the airlines alone are asking for $60 billion in assistance.

The politics of such a big package are expected to be fraught. The broad call for unity and urgency did not translate into unanimity; everyone has their own version of what the next and possibly biggest package should look like. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday unveiled a $750 billion package that carried his party’s ambitions for a recovery. Mnunchin offered an $850 billion package, which included some overlaps with Democrats’ requests. And, at the White House, President Donald Trump indicated that the total price tag to taxpayers was going to top $1 trillion.

For now, McConnell is assembling his proposal with only Republican input, and the fast-changing dynamics are making Senators nervous. “This is a Herculean task from a legislative point of view, to craft something this significant with 53 people. It just, you know, can’t be done,” McConnell told reporters.

The final cost could be staggering, particularly for Republicans who usually pride themselves on fiscal responsibility. Republicans, seemingly overnight, shifted their orthodoxy away from small-government, market-based capitalism to full-throated championing of corporate subsidies. Asked what had changed, McConnell likened the situation to others he has faced in the Senate, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the 2008 stock market crash and the 2013 fiscal cliff, which threatened spikes in taxes and massive cuts in government spending.

McConnell told colleagues that they should prepare to stay in Washington for the near future; once dispersed to the states, re-assembling the aged chamber could be a challenge and even a life-threatening exercise. McConnell said he would take precautions, such as longer windows to vote so as to avoid a jumble at doors or crowding on the floor. But he wants his colleagues together.

“We’re not going to leave this building until we get the job done,” Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told reporters at a largely deserted Capitol on Tuesday. “It may take us a few days or a few weeks, but we’re going to get the job done.”

— With reporting by Abby Vesoulis/Columbus, Ohio

#IFTTT #Blogger