President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress have abandoned ship after fighting to give all the lifeboats to large corporations and the wealthy, while House Democrats are charting a course to get working people back home.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is leaving working families to bear the consequences of an extended depression at the height of a pandemic, and the HEROES Act does the opposite. This legislation lays out a bold plan to make it safe for Americans to go back to work, which is the only way for the U.S. economy to recover from the president’s catastrophic coronavirus response.
The HEROES Act package invests in testing and science to make America safe with an urgency that is disturbingly missing from President Trump and Sen. McConnell’s approach. The Trump administration’s continued failures on testing and contact tracing have devastated U.S. public health and made it impossible to truly rejuvenate the economy. Even now, President Trump refuses to adopt a coordinated plan that would allow states across the country to safely reopen. In the face of that abdication, House leaders have put forward a plan that addresses the country’s public health needs and economic challenges, which are inextricably tied.
In the meantime, the bill helps the American people make ends meet to put food on the table and helps avoid additional layoffs that would put hundreds of thousands more teachers and first responders onto the unemployment rolls. In contrast, Sen. McConnell’s only offer is another payout to his donors by stripping workers of their legal rights, and guaranteeing that continued spread of the virus will lead to a prolonged depression.
The American people are already suffering deeply from the Trump administration’s repeated mistakes, which have led to this current economic catastrophe. The HEROES Act puts American families and workers first, while Trump and McConnell are treating them as expendable.