The idea behind Who Won the Week is for you to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.
I will be posting this prompt on Sunday mornings (my time). If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.
This week’s “winner” of Who Won the Week is The American Rescue Plan Act.
Both the House and the Senate this week passed a sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan, fulfilling an electoral promise from President Biden and the Democrats to shepherd a swift recovery plan to address the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
I have to point out that not one Republican in either the House or the Senate — not even one — voted for this bill. They voted against the bill in a purely partisan way even though polls show that a large majority of Americans, including a significant number of Republicans, supported the bill. These GOP members of Congress should be ashamed of themselves.
The American Rescue Plan seeks to curtail the coronavirus pandemic, bolster the sluggish economy and protect the neediest people within it. It will inject vast amounts of federal resources into the economy, including one-time direct payments of up to $1,400 for hundreds of millions of Americans, jobless aid of $300 a week to last through the summer, money for distributing coronavirus vaccines and relief for states, cities, schools, and small businesses struggling during the pandemic.
Unfortunately, the desire to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, which would have cut poverty in America by a third this year and would plant the seeds for an income guarantee for children, which would potentially cut child poverty in half, was cut from the House version of the bill when two Democratic senators balked at an increase of that size.
Isn’t it interesting that the Republicans had no qualms about passing a massive tax cuts bill in 2017 that had a comparable price tag as the American Rescue Plan, but that mostly benefited the wealthy. But the vote against a bill that is aimed at stemming coronavirus and benefits those Americans with the greatest need. I declare that congressional Republicans lost the week.
What about you? Who (or what) do you think won the week?
Welcome to March 7, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.
This, That, and the Other 