Once again, Republicans have forced a very pro-business, pro-rich coronavirus relief bill on Democrats. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but still:
If you’re on SNAP for basic subsistence, you have a lot of hoops to jump through. If you’re a wealthy businessman, you can eat out without any limits at all and write it all off on your taxes—100% of the costs of those meals, in the guise of assistance to restaurants. Because, sure, that’s why restaurants are failing. This will surely be incentive for hordes of people to do the one thing that epidemiologists have found to be among the most dangerous in this pandemic—going out to eat with other people.
Republicans have been on this for months (decades, actually) spurred on by Trump who, with restaurants in New York and D.C.—the twin epicenters of power lunches—will of course gain financially by it. At least Democrats got some additional assistance for the poorest out of it.
