July 23, 2020

What Good Are Republicans?

Stefani Reynolds/CNP via ZUMA

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With only a week to go until benefits run out, Republicans can’t even agree among themselves on a new coronavirus relief package:

Senate Republicans killed President Trump’s payroll tax cut proposal on Thursday but failed to reach agreement with the White House on a broader coronavirus relief bill. This set off a frantic scramble with competing paths forward, as administration officials floated a piecemeal approach but encountered pushback from both parties, and the entire effort appeared to teeter chaotically on the brink of failure.

…If the bill is not released on Thursday, it would likely slip to Monday, giving lawmakers just a few days to reach some sort of agreement before enhanced unemployment benefits will expire for more than 20 million Americans.

What a worthless bunch of cretins. I mean, forget the details. Forget percentages of GDP. Forget 11-dimensional campaign strategies. We have millions of working-class Americans who are barely hanging on to their lives thanks to a pandemic they obviously have no control over. So just pass a goddamn bill. I don’t care if it’s means tested or not. I don’t care which party it “helps” more. I don’t care if it increases the national debt. People are suffering and they need help. Small businesses need help. States and cities need help. Schools need help.

So for God’s sake, help them. Just do it. If Republicans aren’t willing to help out Americans during the biggest pandemic of the past century, what the hell good are they?

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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