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You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / Federal funding firehose is soon to be turned on

Federal funding firehose is soon to be turned on

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This post is in: 

UPDATE


 

ORIGINAL POST
 

Last night, Speaker Pelosi’s office acknowledged that they were 95% of the way to a short term emergency response deal with the White House. The Senate has implicitly made clear that they will vote for whatever Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnunchin can agree upon.

Language has yet to be released. Lots of federal money will be flowing to states via a Medicaid payment bump.

FMAP is what the federal government pays for Medicaid. The ACA Medicaid Expansion population gets a flat FMAP of 90%. Most of the rest of Medicaid gets an FMAP that varies by state. Poorer states have a bigger FMAP so for every dollar Mississippi spends on Medicaid, the federal government will spend three. However ever dollar that Massachusetts spends on Medicaid, the feds will only match it with one additional dollar. An FMAP bump of eight points will increase the multiplier effect of each state dollar.

An FMAP bump is an action that will need minimal administrative plumbing and no new rule making. If an FMAP bump is signed into law this week, states can book the expected increase of federal revenue on Monday morning by the second cup of coffee. I’ve been scarred by the Great Recession and automatic or quasi-automatic very fast to implement counter-cyclical programs are very attractive to me. In December 2018, I was writing about the maintenance of effort requirements of the Center for American Progress healthcare plan and that thought was front of mind:

From a policy angle, I am scarred by the 2008-2010 Great Recession. I want as many automatic stabilizers that are not tied to balance budget requirements as possible. One of the big chunks of the stimulus bill was an enhanced federal Medicaid payment rate which allowed states to not cut budgets as deeply as they normally would have. We don’t want 50 Mini-Hoovers squeezing out Medicaid.

And in 2016:

The US Federal Government has an unmatched ability to absorb risk. It can eat risk that would force any other entity to vomit without even getting heart burn. The FMAP bump that is likely to be in the first emergency response bill is just one of the easiest ways for the Feds to take on systemic risk that would otherwise cripple state budgets.

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  1. 1.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Thanks, Dave! I’ve been seeing tweets about this and didn’t know what to make of it.

    What is the Senate signal that it will pass? Isn’t it more important to McConnell to make Pelosi look bad?

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    How much will (get ready, here it comes) trickle down to the people in immediate need versus how much diverted to a state’s general fund coffers?

    And yes, it’s a red state vs. blue state situation – a priori leveling of the playing field legislatively is paramount.

  4. 4.

    David Anderson

    @NotMax: BOTH–

    It is going to be effectively backfilling state budgets that are about to see a huge revenue crash so that other state services can be maintained.

    The funds will be used to pay clinical staff their salaries.

    Those staff would have been working anyways in a pandemic, so direct new flows through the salary channel is not huge.  BUt the big thing is that state budgets won’t collapse (as quickly) which has significant multiplier effects at zero lower bound.

  5. 5.

    artem1s

    Well perhaps we can ultimately thank COVID-19 for putting another stake thru the heart of the idea that the Fed should issue block grants for medicaid and medicare.

  6. 6.

    artem1s

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Maybe this is one issue Moscow Mitch can’t control the Senate vote on.  He can’t force R-Senators to vote no, so he’s already releasing them to vote however they want.  And they want this out of Dolt’s hands

  7. 7.

    Ken

    @artem1s: That, or McConnell rightly suspects that if the Senate blocks this, he personally risks being set upon by an angry mob. At his next family reunion.

  8. 8.

    Barbara

    McConnell is as morally corrupt as Trump but he is not such a transparent charlatan.  He knows that the Senate hangs in the balance.  That’s almost certainly why he postponed the break — the prospect of McSalley and Collins returning to their older than average states and explaining how the Senate was waiting to see what happened was probably a big fat nonstarter.  I mean, imagine the scenario.  Unlike their usual habit, they will curtail their own town halls and any other public events like visiting nursing homes, but when asked by news reporters what Congress as a whole is doing, they will have to say meep meep.

  9. 9.

    WereBear

    The only way out of this without an Alice’s Restaurant style massacree is to do it the liberal way.

    Their tears. Let me get a bucket.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    NEW: At 7 am Eastern Mnuchin, on behalf of Trump, pulled out of the agreement they had reached at 4 am to provide relief for Americans impacted by the Coronavirus. The package was the right thing.

    He now wants more things Pelosi won’t agree to. I don’t know what they are.

    Tax cuts for rich people? A demand that RBG be forcibly injected with the virus? A signed attestation by Obama admitting responsibility for the virus?

  11. 11.

    Edmund Dantes

    Of course he did.

    classic trump negotiating style.

    agree than walk away from your own agreement.

    god I hate him.

  12. 12.

    Ken

    @dmsilev: I’m guessing bailouts for the luxury hotel and golf course industries.  Maybe also high-end fashion, and whatever it is that Don Jr. pretends to do.

  14. 14.

    Bruce K

    Way back in the winter, when I suggested that either the GOP has to die or America will die, I thought I was speaking metaphorically, not literally.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    @dmsilev

    He now wants more things Pelosi won’t agree to. I don’t know what they are.

    Shortest version: No money for “the coloreds.”

  17. 17.

    oldster

    Nancy’s got a strong hand here. She’ll play it as well as it can be played.

    Her only weakness is that she is a sane human with a moral compass playing against psychopathic greed-heads who love to make people die.

    But she’ll drive a hard bargain, bless her.

  18. 18.

    New Deal democrat

    @Edmund Dantes:

    Exactly. I am completely not shocked that Trump would apparently agree to something and then renege, especially when there are hostages (American lives) to take until he gets a better deal.

    I hope Pelosi ignores him and the House passes their package, dumps it on his and McConnell’s lap, and makes them decide whether to shoot hostages or not.

  20. 20.

    Zinsky

    Let me guess – more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations??  These people like Mnuchin (can’t he buy another vowel for his name?) are certifiable vermin.   They also have no understanding of economics or human behavior.   They are so screwed up in the head that they think all human behavior is predicated on the behavior’s tax consequences.   They also think U.S. markets are “free and perfect”.  These ideas couldn’t be more wrong.

    This will be the second time in 20 years that the U.S. government has had to bail out the glorious “free market”.  Tell me again about how wonderful capitalism is…….

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    He now wants more things Pelosi won’t agree to. I don’t know what they are.

    Mandatory signing of loyalty oaths? 6 Hail Ivankas recited before a witness before getting tested?

  23. 23.

    germy

    His big idea for the economy is a complete payroll tax holiday. According to Bloomberg News, he told Republican senators that he wanted the holiday to extend “through the November election so that taxes don’t go back up before voters decide whether to return him to office.” That is, he apparently said the quiet part out loud.

  24. 24.

    PenAndKey

    At 7 am Eastern Mnuchin, on behalf of Trump, pulled out of the agreement they had reached at 4 am to provide relief for Americans impacted by the Coronavirus.

    As others have said, this is classic Trump. He will agree to a deal, only to back out at the last second after the thinks the other side has committed and can’t afford to go back to the table. He’s hostage taking a pandemic, plain and simple, and he’s obviously gaming this out not as a pandemic but as an election strategy.

    The only way the country gets any federal help is if Pelosi passes the House package and forces McConnell to do the same with a veto proof majority. How that games out I don’t know, and i have no faith McConnell or the Senate GOP will ever feel the pressure to agree, but right now we have no legitimate Executive Branch negotiator at the table.

  25. 25.

    gvg

    I think this is the real reason nothing is being done in Government since the tax deal. Trump doesn’t negotiate and then keep his word.  He always spoils it by demanding more including blowing up deals the Republicans wanted and voted for and have to take heat for.  McConnel has been protecting the republican Senators from Trump screwing them.  And also screwing Democrats of course.

    There is rarely any point to negotiating with Trump, he just doesn’t understand the value of keeping promises.  He’s blown his own reputation.  Of course anyone who was paying attention already knew this, but the GOP and their voters evidently couldn’t see it before.

  26. 26.

    PenAndKey

    Apparently his big sticking point is his idiotic year-long payroll tax cut idea that he explicitly stated he wants to extend past the election. Shocker. Like germy said, he said the quiet part out loud.

  27. 27.

    germy

    @PenAndKey:  and then if the Democrat wins, payroll tax goes back up, and trump & cronies crow “See?  The democrat party raise yur taxes!”

  28. 28.

    MattF

    @gvg: One could argue that, in the past, Trump was screwing the coloreds and the libtards with his ‘negotiating’ style. Now, though, it’s his base.

  29. 29.

    TS (the original)

    @PenAndKey:

    Mnuchin, on behalf of Trump,

    Why do any of them work for him. Everyone negotiates for trump because he now refuses to even speak to a democrat – and then trump pulls the plug. Mnuchin, for once, worked hard at this. He should resign, but none of them do – they wait to be fired.

  30. 30.

    Scout211

    This was likely already posted on another thread but I just saw this article on NBC.com.:

    “Trump Condemns CDC for Lack of Coronavirus Testing: Blames Obama”

    Trump is really taking this seriously!  He is really mad now!  Really!  //

  33. 33.

    Aleta

    What Kushner fed the Post

    Jared Kushner… has seized control over some aspects of the government’s coronavirus response  …

    …

    Kushner only recently became involved with the administration’s virus response, beginning to attend meetings in his capacity as a senior adviser, according to officials, but inserted himself more fully as he became increasingly convinced that more tangible action was needed. He supported Trump’s decision to ban most travel from Europe for 30 days and has pushed for further concrete steps, some of which are expected to be announced in the coming days, officials said.

     

    Kushner on  the job (Politico)

    Just before midnight Wednesday, a doctor asked a group of fellow emergency room physicians on Facebook how they would combat the escalating coronavirus outbreak.
    “I have direct channel to person now in charge at White House,” Kurt Kloss wrote in his post.

    The next morning, after hundreds of doctors responded, Kloss explained why he sought the suggestions: Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, had asked him for recommendations.

    Kloss, whose daughter is married to Kushner’s brother, sent Kushner 12 recommendations Thursday morning.

    …
    Kushner has attended several meetings on coronavirus alongside Trump, including one with banking leaders at the White House Wednesday to discuss how they could help their customers hit by the outbreak. He is also talking to people about whether Trump should declare an emergency, bringing in the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate and unleashing billions of dollars for struggling states.
    The Facebook group, EM Docs, has nearly 22,000 members around the globe who are required to provide their credentials to join.

  34. 34.

    PenAndKey

    @TS (the original): Everyone negotiates for trump because he now refuses to even speak to a democrat

    Can you imagine the “Democrats won’t negotiate!” foghorn announcements on Fox if Obama refused to negotiate directly with republicans? I can, because they would, but it still floors me that they’re so brazen about their hypocrisy in the last couple years. In a sane administration the President refusing to meet with the leader of the House, no matter who they were, for something like this would be enough to make the president resign in disgrace or face impeachment.

  35. 35.

    Anya

    @Aleta: I’ve posed this as a question yesterday on twitter but I think we’ve officially reached the hell scape phase.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    David Frum @ davidfrum
    4 Trump tweets/retweets so far today. All in proper English. Even the familiar whining looks at least internally coherent. IE: Trump didn’t write them. Which suggests the president remains in the dazed state of collapse we all saw on TV Wednesday night.

    I just looked at his blame-Obama tweets. Almost no random capitalization, mostly correct syntax, one exclamation point … those aren’t him.

  37. 37.

    laura

    Bill freaking Frist!?! I am not reassured.

    What happens when a cascade of job losses leads to a cascade of homelessness on top of a cascade of potentially unmanageable illness and death? It’ll be totally orderly won’t it -because they’ll still have the payroll tax cut for the job they no longer had.

  38. 38.

    germy

    WHITE HOUSE SOURCE: The President is sick, but we don't know if its #coronavirus or something else because he refuses to get tested. He's scared that any DNA from that test can be seized via court order to compare to the many rape allegations made against him. #COVID19— Not Bill Murray (@StayWonked) March 13, 2020

  39. 39.

    Anya

    @PenAndKey: yet he sat in the Oval Office  with a straight face (as much as his adoral filed brain can allow) and told the nation to get over partisanship.

  40. 40.

    Ken

    @Aleta: Trump should declare an emergency, bringing in the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate and unleashing billions of dollars for struggling states.

    Pelosi could tie the payroll tax cut to the declaration of emergency.  It starts when the emergency is declared and ends when it is lifted.

    Oh, and it may not be lifted between October 2020 and January 2021 inclusive.  Got to remember we’re dealing with a four-year-old mind that looks for any loophole.

  43. 43.

    New Deal democrat

    Two further points:

    1. The S&P has given back about 1/3 to 1/2 of its opening gains. Probably because traders became aware of the implications of Trump’s reneging on the deal.

    2. The template here is last year’s negotiations to end the government shutdown. Further, Pelosi, McConnell, and Mnuchin are almost certainly all *aware* that this is the template, so you have to take that into account in how they are negotiating. If everyone expected Trump to renege, then (1) McConnell would do what he did last year, walk away until Trump himself was clearly committed; and (2) Pelosi would keep some concessions “in her back pocket” to be used in response to an expected reneging by Trump. It is even possible that Mnuchin agreed to a “soft” deal as well, from his point of view, knowing that his boss would renege. We have seen Trump fold, but only after howls from his own side, as with last year’s impasse and also kids in cages.

  44. 44.

    germy

    @WereBear:  The person who tweeted it calls himself Strategist from Obama Era | Policy Analyst | Intel, Political Econ, Nat Sec Portfolio | Protecting Anonymity | Inquiries: [email protected]

    I see he deleted the tweet.

    Maybe I shouldn’t have posted it here.  But it’s certainly believable, knowing what we know about trumpf.

  45. 45.

    Kattails

    @germy: I just got a “This tweet is unavailable” when I tried it, but… wowzers. On one level, of course, slanderous. On another level, shoe fits like it was bespoke, as the Brits like to say.

  46. 46.

    Ken

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:   I asked a few days ago what happens when narcissists have their noses rubbed hard in reality.  I found the narcopath.info site.

    According to that, being forced to confront their failures can result in “narcissistic collapse”.  It can manifest as a full breakdown and withdrawal from life.  However if they can find enough people to tell them they’re really doing great (and Trump has surrounded himself with such people, who unfortunately are the ones who would have to invoke the 25th) they might come back after “hibernating”.

    They don’t say anything about the simultaneous effect of a notorious germophobe finding he’s been repeatedly exposed to sick people.  I can’t imagine it would help.

  49. 49.

    WereBear

    @Ken: I would say his behavior during the speech would qualify. And dementia patients are easily overwhelmed.

    So many reasons he shouldn’t be in charge, and yet, here we are.

  51. 51.

    germy

    @NotMax:  They seem to have a fully stocked bar in their green room, if Kudlow is any indication

    Kudlow: Payroll tax is a ‘bold move’ from bold president

    Larry Kudlow discusses benefits of the payroll tax cut and the economic stimulus package amid the coronavirus outbreak

  52. 52.

    Zinsky

    @PenAndKey:  I sure hope the Democrats don’t let these rat bastards cut payroll taxes.   You know what they mean when they say “payroll taxes”, don’t you?   They are talking about Social Security and Medicare!

    Let me be clear – They are proposing to underfund both Social Security and Medicare to weaken them further.

    I have a better idea – cap executive and board member compensation for any corporation with over 100 employees at $500K per year and use every penny that would have gone to executive compensation, bonuses and equity awards to be paid to every American.   Also, jail the executives of any company caught gouging or raising prices during this crisis.  It’s time to bodyslam these so-called capitalists who want socialism for the wealthy and capitalism for the rich!

  55. 55.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy:

    Maybe I shouldn’t have posted it here.  But it’s certainly believable, knowing what we know about trumpf.

    I was exposed to maybe a total of a minute of his appearance the other night, and I can’t believe the way he was sniffling every ent seconds hasn’t attracted more attention

  60. 60.

    Ken

    @germy: Is Falwell the one with the colloidal silver snake oil?  The one being slapped by New York State and, I think, the FDA with cease-and-desist orders?

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken: It can manifest as a full breakdown and withdrawal from life.

    I have never seen a narcissist withdraw from life. I have seen them withdraw from the life they were living and start a new one with a whole new box of marks to grift.

  63. 63.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ken: I think that’s Jim Bakker, Tammy Faye’s ex. His dog really misses the air conditioning

  64. 64.

    PenAndKey

    @Ken: Nope, that’s previously conflicted fraudster Jim Bakker. Oh, and Alex Jones, but he doesn’t count.

  65. 65.

    Ken

    @germy: Thanks. I just googled, and Falwell is the one with the dubious loans and business deals from Liberty University for his friends.  That is, his “friends”, according to some accounts.

  69. 69.

    catclub

    @germy: that the coronavirus is the result of a plot devised by Kim Jong Un and the Chinese. No pushback from hosts.

     

    South Korea has handled the coronavirus extremely well, with extensive testing.  I fear that N. Korea will be a real shitshow – and all kept secret like famine.

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: now this one looks like The Beast itself has been at least temporarily roused

    Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump· 1h
    The Federal Reserve must FINALLY lower the Fed Rate to something comparable to their competitor Central Banks. Jay Powell and group are putting us at a decided economic & physiological disadvantage. Should never have been this way. Also, STIMULATE!

    countdown to deletion and retweet with Kellyanne’s edit….

  74. 74.

    germy

    I get the sense that this is not only the low point of the Trump presidency but the low point of the American presidency ever. Has any president ever been this overmatched by a crisis?

    — David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) March 13, 2020

    There was a president in the early twenty-first century who responded to a major terrorist act on American soil not by tracking down those who planned and funded it and handing them to the criminal justice system but by setting the Middle East on fire. He later took up painting. https://t.co/4JxUtbdv4J

    — Phil Dyess-Nugent (@PhillipNugent) March 13, 2020

  75. 75.

    Chris Johnson

    I’ve got a friend who says if Iran has the coronavirus, Russia has it.

    Maybe Putin will have a little more to occupy him other than fucking with us.

    Or, more practically, since Putin will be doing mostly what Trump is doing but internal to Russia, maybe both these fuckers plus fellow puppet Boris Johnson and the Tories will go down.

    It does seem like a very big ask: ‘preside over a global pandemic in such a way that we kill off huge numbers of peasants AND they don’t rise up and kill us all’. If it works (in ‘disaster capitalism’ terms, not ‘they did it on purpose’ terms) it will become the go-to response for authoritarians and fascists worldwide, while that lasts.

  76. 76.

    Ken

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Because the only reason we’re not wiping out this disease (that we totally wiped out in January (but it’s Obama’s fault that we haven’t)) is that large banks can’t get cheap overnight loans from the Fed.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The Beast is holding a news conference at 3 pm eastern, so there will be an hour window for whatever gains are made today to be wiped out. I assume there’s money to be made there is you know how

  78. 78.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @germy:

    The mass graves story is a lie, sort of.  It’s a half truth that is effectively a lie.  Iran has very strict burial customs, so they are digging a lot of graves all at once ahead of time.  The death rate is nowhere near the level you normally associate with mass graves.

  80. 80.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Trump organization has a lot of debt. Every time the Fed lowers rates the asshole saves a lot of money on some if not all of it. I always thought that was why he’s been whining ever since he took/stole office that the fed rates are too high.

  82. 82.

    Fair Economist

    Bolsonara has tested positive for coronavirus. In all seriousness, there’s a good chance he got it at Mar-a-Lago and it’s spreading there. Florida has a much more advanced epidemic than Brazil.

  83. 83.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    what are the odds Florida overtakes WA for the fastest spread of the virus?

    David Fahrenthold@Fahrenthold
    Florida’s Gov asked people to avoid large gatherings @realdonaldtrump 
    ’s Mar-a-Lago Club is set to host 700 people for a charity brunch on Saturday.

  84. 84.

    rivers

    @germy: There’s a twitter thread which I can’t find now that explains why this is misleading. Yes, Iran is certainly understating the numbers, but they are burying everyone in the same area for sanitary reasons and they are digging graves in advance of deaths they expect. Also these are not pits for mass graves, they are actual normal sized graves. I wish I could find the thread, but this makes sense to me. Again, it’s not that they’re being honest about the numbers, but these pictures suggest a far worse situation than actually exists.

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Chris Johnson:Maybe Putin will have a little more to occupy him other than fucking with us.

    During times of internal stress, autocrats have a habit of looking for a scapegoat on the outside and attacking it to distract their populace from the ineptitude of their leader/s.

  86. 86.

    EthylEster

    @artem1s: He can’t force R-Senators to vote no, so he’s already releasing them to vote however they want. And they want this out of Dolt’s hands.

    Linky to support what sounds like a delusion to me?

  87. 87.

    Barbara

    Regarding FMAP percentages, no state is currently lower than 50%, and 10 states and DC are above 70%.  I can’t remember all the ins and outs, but at some point federal legislation decreed that the highest match could not be above a certain multiple of the lowest.  Some states, like Mississippi, would probably be above 80% if it were simply the result of a formula based on net income in the state

    ETA:  Here is a link to current FMAP percentages.

  88. 88.

    EthylEster

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I remember when Dan Savage attended the GOP convention (as a delegate!) in 1996. He confessed to  licking doorknobs as an evil plan to infect attendees. Maybe he had a cold or the flu at the time. There’s a “This American Life” episode about it.

  90. 90.

    Shalimar

    @Ken: The payroll tax is an even more stupid reaction to this than a European travel ban was when the virus is already here.  Giving people with jobs 15% extra to spend isn’t going to help anything.  The massive problem will be all the businesses that close and people left without jobs.

  91. 91.

    Shalimar

    @Fair Economist: Australia’s home affairs minister also has it less than a week after meeting here with Barr, Conway and Ivanka among others.  No direct evidence, but it seems likely it is going around high-level Washington.

  94. 94.

    Citizen Alan

    Off-topic, but I will officially never offer political advice again, as I was the one a few weeks back pushing Andrew Gillum as a possible Veep candidate. He is now apparently involved in a crystal meth scandal.

  96. 96.

    catclub

    @Geminid: Wouldn’t that assume the debt is linked to some indicator rate?  I guess it probably is.

    ON the other hand, I also assume Trump is no longer paying on any loan agreement. What are they going to do?

    Foreclose on the president? Deutsche Bank? Really?

  97. 97.

    EthylEster

    @Shalimar: What facts? I got no facts. That’s why I’m asking for a  source on these “conjectures”.

    It’s OK to say “I have no evidence.” I have no problem with people saying anything if they just supply some evidence or admit they have none.

  102. 102.

    Gary Ratner

    Are we in the middle of a great natural experiment? After adjustment for other variables, a future researcher will measure statewide coronavirus mortality vs. Medicaid expansion status.

  104. 104.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: “We’re rich fucks.  The virus won’t touch us.”

    “Oh yes.  So true, so true.”

    “It’s a dirty commoner virus.”

    “Right again.  Right again.  My, aren’t we geniuses?

    “Oh yes.  So true.  So true.”

  105. 105.

    Geminid

    @Ken: Unlike his brother Jonathan, Jerry Falwell Jr. is not a minister, but holds an MBA. His brother runs the fathers church, while Jr. got Liberty University, quite a cash cow. His business sense may have skipped a generation. I have a Lynchburg friend who says grandpa and kin were serious bootleggers.

  106. 106.

    J R in WV

    @catclub:

    all kept secret like famine.

    But we can see mass graves in sat pix, as in Iran’s new 100 yards long trench in the Qom cematary.

  107. 107.

    John Carter 1966

    SCOTUS (fem side)

    Let’s hope RGB and the girls stay safely away and Thomas, Alito, Kennedy, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and J.R. all have a Brett Boof Party.

  108. 108.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @PenAndKey: I’m sorry, but I’ll take issue with calling them hypocrites.

    Hypocrisy is where you declare a standard, and are far more willing to excuses lapses  by you and  yours than by those who aren’t part of the clique.

    Republicans don’t have any standards except:

    1. Republicans are always right, good, and moral,
    2. Democrats are always wrong, evil, and sinful, and,
    3. Republicans who are costing us polling numbers are honorary Democrats

    So, you see, they’re evil, lying, despicable people, with no moral or ethical sense – but that means they’re immune to charges of hypocrisy. Even blaming Democrats for Covid-19, after their blaming of Democrats for ebola, isn’t hypocrisy, because their standards aren’t about “who should be blamed for a disease”; ebola was on the Democrats, because it’s always on the Democratic Party; Covid-19 is on the Democrats, for the exact same reason.

    Hypocrisy demands that a person be acting in good faith to have  any meaning, but the Republicans stopped arguing and acting in good faith in 1994 (at the latest – there’s reason to suspect they started earlier).

  109. 109.

    Procopius

    In case you weren’t aware, the Fed already turned on the funding firehose. In fact, they turned it on last September 17. It apparently hasn’t worked.

    The Fed’s money spigot became a gusher this week. On Wednesday, the New York Fed announced that it would be making up to $270 billion, in just one day, available to Wall Street on Thursday. But before Thursday was over, the Fed upped its largess to such a staggering figure that even we were speechless. It said that between Thursday and today, it would offer $1.5 trillion in a combination of 3-month and one-month loans – on top of its other ongoing loan programs.

    …

    This morning, only $17 billion of the $500 billion offered by the Fed in its 3-month loan was tapped and $24.1 billion of the $500 billion in the one-month loan. When Wall Street thumbs its nose at almost free money, something really strange is going on.

    Now I don’t know. Maybe Wall Street On Parade is a quack, fringe blog. Maybe I’m being beguiled by fake news. I do enjoy a good conspiracy theory, so I’m susceptible. I’ve been struck by the fact that this claim, that the Fed has been “lending” a lot of money to trading houses and banks because they are not liquid, has not been commented on more. But what if it’s true

    ETA: The link doesn’t seem to have been added: https://wallstreetonparade.com/2020/03/the-fed-has-233-secret-documents-about-jpmorgans-potential-role-in-the-repo-loan-crisis/

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