This month against advice from the congressional physician, Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided that House Democrats had to return to Washington D.C. to resume their fight against the Covid-19 Coronavirus War. At the same time Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided that Senate Republicans needed to return to conduct some very important business. It’s been 3 weeks since Senate Republicans returned to conduct their important business and the question throughout America is: Are Senate Republicans guilty of incompetence or are they clones of Nero and simply just don’t give a DAMN???

In March the House and Senate passed the historic $ 2 trillion CARES Act, it gave the American public and the US economy a start at fighting the devastating spread of the coronavirus. At that time in the United States there were 97,226 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 1,478 people had died from being infected by it. The CARES Act contains the following:

  • Direct payments of $1,200.00 for American taxpayers
  • Expanded unemployment insurance of an additional $600 per week on top of what state unemployment programs pay.
  • Paycheck Protection Program which gave forgivable loans to businesses if the employer continues to pay its workers for the duration of the coronavirus crisis.

Unlike House Democrats Senate Republicans have shown they consider this to be a one time abomination event NEVER to happen again

These and the other components of the CARES Act that both House Democrats and Senate Republicans crafted was a great opening shot to fighting the coronavirus war. But as massive as the 1st stimulus package is, it’s only the beginning of the relief that most of the American people need!!!

Speaker Nancy Pelosi led House Democrats back to the front line of the coronavirus war to pass badly needed legislation to help American citizens and state and local governments injured by the coronavirus economic shutdown

In the 2 months since House Democrats and Senate Republicans passed the CARES Act the coronavirus pandemic grew to an Armageddon of sickness and death. The 97,000 cases of confirmed coronavirus have grown to over 1 million. The 1,478 coronavirus deaths have grown to over 98,000 with an expectation of them reaching 100,000 deaths this week. Concerned about the Armageddon of sickness and death that occurred after the 1st stimulus package, House Democrats braved a return to D.C. against the expressed concern of the congressional physician to pass the HEROES Act.

It contains:

  • $200 billion to fund hazard pay for the essential frontline workers
  • $500 billion for states, $375 billion for local governments, $755 million for Washington, DC, $20 billion for Native American communities, and $20 billion for territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands. These funds are needed to fill the gigantic shortfalls to the budgets of states, cities, and territories caused by the stay-at-home orders which completely shut down state and local economies.
  • A 2nd round of stimulus checks: $1,200.00 for individuals, $2,400.00 for couples and $1,200.00 per child with a cap of 3
  • An extension of expanded unemployment insurance of an additional $600.00 on top of what a state normally pays out to January 2021 and an additional $925 million to the states to assist with processing the record-breaking millions of job layoff claims
  • An additional $10 billion for small businesses through the Payment Protection and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Programs
  • $10 billion to cover increased demand for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
  • $3.6 billion to help states with the costs of expanding vote-by-mail or no-excuse absentee voting, and an increase in funding for personal protective equipment for poll workers in states that keep in-person voting
  • Funding to pay 9 months of COBRA health insurance for laid-off employees
  • $75 billion for coronavirus testing and tracing
  • A new tax provision removing the $10,000 limit on the amount of state and local tax deductions (SALT) U.S. taxpayers are allowed
  • $25 billion for the United States Postal Service (USPS), the only action House Democrats took that would appear not to relate directly to the coronavirus war, but when the impact of the coronavirus war on America’s rural communities is taken into consideration it becomes clear that rural communities need the help of the USPS to fight the coronavirus war.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell returns to the Capitol with the rest of the Senate amid the coronavirus outbreak. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

Like Speaker Pelosi decided in the case of House Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided that Senate Republicans should throw coronavirus caution to the wind and return to D.C.

Even with the high unemployment devastation taking place in America Senate Republicans feel no need to take any further action to help American citizens

So Senate Republicans could conduct the following Senate business they considered very important:

  • A vote to confirm William Evanina as Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, a position so important that it took the Senate 2 years to vote on it
  • A vote to confirm Congressman John Ratcliffe as the new Director of Intelligence, a position that already had an acting Director for the last 9 months
  • A hearing on Justin Walker, President Trump’s nominee to fill a judgeship on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that will not be vacant until September
  • Committee hearings on coronavirus testing, the coronavirus impact on the airline industry, and for vetting the nominee to oversee the Treasury Dept.’s pandemic relief efforts. Unfortunately, the hearings produced no legislative actions
  • An additional hearing held with Coronavirus War General Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s foremost expert on coronaviruses, resulted once again with Senate Republicans producing no legislative actions to follow his advice and guidance

Anyone comparing the legislative activity of House Democrats to fight the coronavirus war versus the lack of legislative activity of any kind by Senate Republicans would conclude, that Senate Republicans are either highly incompetent or like Nero they don’t give a damn deciding instead to fiddle while the coronavirus war burns America to death.

Mitch McConnell said he didn’t think any further action to help American citizens or state and local governments suffering from the coronavirus war was necessary at this time, BUT he does think further action is needed right now to protect corporate America!!!

To add insult to Senate Republicans’ incompetence and Nero fiddling Mitch McConnell declared: “Let me make it perfectly clear, the Senate is not interested in passing a bill that does not have liability protection, the way you make a law is it has to pass the House and the Senate. What I’m saying is we have a red line on liability. It won’t pass the Senate without it.”

Even though corporate America was the largest recipient of the CARES Act stimulus Senate Republicans feel they deserve more help and American citizens do not

In other words, Senate Republicans will do nothing else to fight the coronavirus or help the American people who have lost employment, lost their business, or have been infected with the coronavirus but have no health insurance to fight it until they take care of corporate America. Making sure corporate America can’t be sued by employees or customers for coronavirus negligence.

Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have “drawn a red line” to protect corporate America from lawsuits but won’t draw a red line to provide every American with virus testing and all medical personnel with PPE equipment to protect them from the coronavirus!!!

Aside from the shamefulness of Senate Republicans’ don’t give a damn about the American people’s attitude, it’s illogical. Because if the coronavirus is not contained and the American people are not economically protected and empowered, corporate America won’t survive long enough to need liability protection!!!

If for no other reason than self-preservation, Senate Republicans need to stop playing the role of Nero, follow the lead of House Democrats, and put the interest of the American people above all else. Failure to do so means Senate Republicans will face a guaranteed political coronavirus death of their own in the November general elections.