Mar 12, 2021: In another brazen display of reckless and wasteful government spending, Biden and Pelosi (and their DNC socialist cartel) passed yet another trillion-dollar stimulus package guaranteed to saddle future generations with a “canyon” of public debt. The $1.9 trillion spending bill was branded as the “American Rescue Plan”. Unfortunately, we can now confirm that the “targets of rescue” are sharply focused on (1) giant progressive DNC pet projects and (2) shameful bailouts for fiscally irresponsible blue states, trade unions and public enterprises. The following article will serve as a convenient summary of the American Rescue Plan, highlighting the elements that make up the $1.9 trillion spending boondoggle (a boondoggle that is mostly unrelated to Covid relief). As you review the summary elements of this so called "Covid relief bill", pay close attention to the fact that this bill directs a mere 9% of the total funding towards battling Covid directly - the rest of the funding (91%) is pretty much "pork" for the special progressive projects of the DNC and establishment.

Perhaps the best way to start our review is to comment on the “movement” and status of the US national debt over recent years. Over the past three years, Republicans and Democrats have helped drain the US Treasury from the left and the right. Our national debt increased from $10 trillion (2008) to $19.6 trillion (2016) to $23.6 trillion (2020) and stands at $28 trillion under Joe Biden today. The figures are unfathomable and likely unrecoverable without a massive economic default and “reset”. Of course, continuing the practice of trillion-dollar pork barrel packages (disguised as a Covid relief bill) and hyper-bloated legislation will eventually drive the national debt train off a cliff. (Forbes - Adam Andrzejewski; March 11, 2021)

As far as the elements and highlights/lowlights of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, consider these summary bullets to get a feel for the scale and nature of this stimulus bill. Ultimately, this level of reckless waste will fall on the backs of American taxpayers now and certain to carry a “financial hangover” for generations to come. Brace yourself for the following stimulus bill details:

• No Republicans supported the American Rescue Plan, so this trillion-dollar bill is completely partisan (and “rammed through Congress)

• This relief bill is one of the largest federal aid packages since the Great Depression (Forbes - Niall McCarthy; March 11, 2021)

• Democrats tried to include an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 per hour but failed - the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned that such an increase in the minimum wage would cost the US economy a minimum of 1.4 million jobs (Forbes - Niall McCarthy; March 11, 2021)

• This bill is not targeted, timely, or tied to Covid - only 9% of this massive $1.9 trillion package goes to fighting Covid directly with only half to be spent in 2021 (Epoch Times – Zachary Steiber; March 11, 2021)

• The bill invests $20 billion targeted at vaccinations (Epoch Times – Zachary Steiber; March 11, 2021)

• $350 billion is being allocated to state and local governments (in the form of “bailouts”) while education will receive nearly $180 billion to support measures such as “miscellaneous” school re-openings (Forbes - Niall McCarthy; March 11, 2021)

• The CBO estimates only 4% of the K-12 spending in the stimulus bill would occur in 2021 with the remainder of the $350 billion spent between 2022 and 2028

• $39.6 billion in funding will be directed at higher education, an amount that is three times greater than the massive CARES Act funding from last March (Forbes - Adam Andrzejewski; March 11, 2021)

• Direct payments to American taxpayers’ amount to more than $400 billion (Checks of $1,400 will be sent to individuals making up to $80,000, single parents earning $120,000 or less and couples with household incomes of no more than $160,000. A further $246 billion is being allocated to extend unemployment programs with federal unemployment payments of $300 per week now extended until September 06)

• $50 million for “family planning” – aimed at non-profits such as Planned Parenthood and “miscellaneous public entities” (Epoch Times – Zachary Steiber; March 11, 2021)

• $852 million for AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps Vista, and the National Senior Service Corps (this includes $9 million for the AmeriCorp inspector general to conduct oversight and audits of the largess – note that AmeriCorps already received a massive $1.1 billion FY2020 appropriation in the last stimulus bill)

• The Wall Street Journal editorial board estimates that only $825 billion was “loosely related to Covid-19 relief” while well over $1 trillion was related to “expansions of progressive programs, pork, and unrelated policy changes.” (Forbes - Adam Andrzejewski; March 11, 2021)

• $470 million in the bill doubles the budgets of The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment of the Arts and the Humanities (Forbes - Adam Andrzejewski; March 11, 2021)

• $270 million is aimed at the National Endowment of the Arts and the Humanities

• $86 billion to save nearly 200 pension plans insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (Note: there are no reforms mandated while these poorly managed pensions, most of them co-managed by DNC affiliated unions)

• $1.5 billion in funding for Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) - In 2020 Congress appropriated $3 billion for Amtrak and, in the three years prior to the pandemic, the AMTRAK “money-pit” lost $392 million (in spite of an additional bailout subsidy of $5 billion from 2017-2019)

From this summary, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is: financially wasteful-reckless-irresponsible, mostly non-Covid related, engineered exclusively for DNC “special interests”, and certain to add to unrecoverable levels of generational national debt. Even worse, the pathological habit for our politicians to pilfer from an “imaginary money tree” (under the guise of hyped-up pseudo crises) seems to be a habit our politicians are far too comfortable with. We can only hope and pray that this habit does not become an annual tradition with each flu season. By: Extremely American Colin Wright