EDITORIAL: Congress now dickering over the next relief package

More than two months after House Democrats passed a $3 trillion spending wish list disguised as a coronavirus relief package, Senate Republicans joined the party on Monday with a more austere $1 trillion proposal.

The two sides are at loggerheads on many issues, and the differences remain instructive.

Both parties insist that a compromise is urgent because a $600 federal unemployment bonus for jobless Americans is set to expire this week. With many businesses in a holding pattern thanks to the coronavirus, the small economic rebound that accompanied the gradual reopening of many states is also threatened.

On the matter of unemployment, the GOP proposal makes more sense. Rather than continue the $600 bonus for the foreseeable future — paying people more not to work than to work — Republicans would trim the extra unemployment to $200 a week. That strikes a sensible balance between encouraging workers to return to the job when they are able to do so and providing additional funds to minimize hardship. It makes no sense to continue to provide aid that exceeds the average worker’s prior income.

In addition, the Democratic bill calls for billions in bailouts to states and local governments. The Republican version includes no such handouts. While Nancy Pelosi &Co. routinely complain — with justification — about a lack of accountability for federal funds that shore up private businesses, they harbor no such concerns about subsidies directed toward their public sector benefactors. While many jurisdictions, including Nevada, have experienced massive budget pain, others were in financial difficulty long before the pandemic hit and see the virus as convenient cover for years of mismanagement. If the Senate cedes ground on this issue, it must ensure that taxpayers have protections against governments that use relief funds to simply pad their general funds.

There are a handful of issues on which the sides are closer together. Republicans want liability protection for employers from trial lawyers trolling for coronavirus jackpots. Democrats want protections for employers who may face risks in the workplace. There’s no reason both can’t be accomplished. Ditto on the next round of direct payments to American families. The disagreements are in the margins and can be ironed out.

At some point, all Americans and the economy will pay a significant price for deficits approaching $10 trillion amid the attitude now dominanting progressive circles that we can just gin up the printing presses to cover the gap. That’s economic sorcery masquerading as serious policy and will lead to financial ruin. It may be quaint these days to speak of fiscal responsibility, but the GOP plan in that regard is a better option than the $3 trillion blowout Democrats desire.