Marie Antoinette of the Senate

Yesterday I wrote that Moscow Mitch said he didn’t want to do a blue state bailout and states should be allowed to declare bankruptcy. A couple GOP governors are calling that statement “shameful and infefensible” (Hogan of MD) and “a dangerous statement” (Sununu of NH). Pete King, a GOP Rep. from NY, called Mitch the “Marie Antoinette of the Senate.”



As part of the $349 billion loan program to small businesses banks processed the forms and turned them over to the Small Business Administration. They didn’t have to do nearly as much vetting as they would if they were guaranteeing the loan themselves. They also don’t have any liability. And with that not much work they pulled in fees worth $10 billion.

Of course, the SBA could have handled it all themselves, but administering the program through banks allows them to get their cut.



The coronavirus is causing delays in conducting the 2020 census. The Census bureau is asking that they be allowed to release their data at the end of July 2021 rather than end of March. Stephen Wolf of Daily Kos Elections says that could wreak havoc in next year’s redistricting. After every census the states have to rebalance their districts for equal population. The delay means various state deadlines may not be met.

Another redistricting issue is how to treat prisons and how to avoid prison gerrymandering. This becomes more of an issue as more prisons are built in rural white areas to house black inmates. These inmates aren’t allowed to vote, but the way they are counted in the population affects districts. Count them where they are incarcerated and the white district gets an increased population without an increase in voters while the communities the inmates came from get a decrease in population. Those black communities, now with fewer resources, also must handle the cost of reintegration once inmates are released.

Some states, including Michigan, require that an inmate be counted at their last address before incarceration. Will the 2020 census data help or hinder that?



Candidate Joe Biden said something many of us fear:

Mark my words, I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can't be held.

Laura Clawson of Kos reminds us the law doesn’t give the nasty guy the power to delay an election. He’ll likely try anyway. And he has the Senate GOP and all those judges he’s appointed to back him up.