As Coronavirus Cases Surge, Republicans Still Refuse Relief To Struggling State & Local Governments, Continue Push To Eliminate Health Care Law

Despite “alarming surges” in coronavirus cases across the country, Senate Republicans are refusing to help struggling Americans battling an economic and public health crisis made worse by the dangerously inadequate GOP response. 

As hundreds of local governments are forced to “slash spending” on upgrades to “critical infrastructure” in order to address the massive budget shortfalls due to coronavirus, Senate Republicans see “no urgency” in providing aid to struggling communities. And while GOP strategists admit that “politically, it’s pretty dumb” to campaign on repealing the health care law amid a pandemic, Senate Republicans continue to stand by the GOP’s reckless lawsuit to “terminate” health care and have “no plan” to make it easier for the newly uninsured to obtain health coverage.

“Millions of Americans have lost health care coverage and are delaying life-saving medical care because they can’t afford it, and state and local governments have been forced to slash essential services and infrastructure, but Senate Republicans claim there is no urgency to provide needed relief,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Voters won’t forget that in the middle of a massive economic and public health crisis, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans sat back and decided not to act.”

Washington Post: Cities cut plans to fix roads, water systems to fill budget holes created by the coronavirus

By Tony Romm

Key Points:

• More than 700 U.S. cities have halted plans to improve roadways, buy new equipment and complete a wide array of upgrades to water systems and other critical infrastructure, as government officials slash spending to shore up the massive holes in their budgets created by the coronavirus.

• The decision to suspend or terminate some of these long-planned purchases, upgrades and repairs threatens to worsen municipal services and harm local businesses, according to the National League of Cities, which deduced from a new survey released Tuesday that more federal aid is necessary to ensure that local financial woes do not imperil the country’s economic recovery.

• Cities had already predicted they would need about $500 billion from Washington to help cover the massive, unanticipated declines in tax revenue and other costs incurred from the pandemic, which has shuttered businesses and left millions of Americans out of work. But federal lawmakers have been unwilling to authorize such a cash infusion, forcing many cities to take drastic steps to balance their budgets for fiscal 2021, which for many governments begins on July 1.

• Even as some private-sector industries have started to rebound, state and local governments continue to struggle immensely…Many of these cuts have affected teachers, support staff and other workers in schools nationwide, leaving educators fearful that jobs and spending may never return to past levels.
  

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