Senator Collins…?

To the Editor:

You would hope that Congress would function in a time of a pandemic and deep recession. The House of Representatives took action to address these problems in May, but Mitch McConnell and his party in the Senate decided to ignore what they saw and wait until mid-July to see if the virus mysteriously vanished and the economy shot back as President Trump said it would. Instead the virus shot back, 30 million are out of work and as of August have lost the unemployment subsidies.

Mitch McConnell says 20 members of his caucus do not want to spend a penny more on the unemployed, businesses or the virus. Instead of working with the other side of the aisle to find a plan that would pass the Senate he put up a plan that at most 33 of his own party would vote for then blamed the Democrats for not buying it.

In the meantime tens of millions have lost the $600 week unemployment aid, and the self employed who were getting unemployment have been kicked off the rolls despite having no work. Each week a million more lose their jobs. Since the House has passed a relief bill and 47 Democratic and Independent senators would vote for that bill, shouldn’t McConnell let the Senate vote on the House’s bill? Maybe three GOP senators care about those who have lost their jobs and may lose their homes if nothing passes. Maybe three GOP senators do not want to see their state cut police, fire, and school jobs to cope with the loss of revenue this pandemic has caused. Maybe three GOP senators do not want to see businesses and hospitals in their state close for good.

Maybe Senator Susan Collins would be one of those three GOP senators. If she is, she should be stating so publicly and demanding a vote in the Senate. If she isn’t the voters in Maine should know now.

Walter Hamilton

Portsmouth N.H.

Walter:

Somehow, Congress never got around to passing legislation under which its members could be prosecuted for nonfeasance—the failure to discharge its obligations. Now it’s too late. The only thing Congress is willing to do, it seems, is put hanging judges on the bench and cut taxes on the rich. One of these days they’ll drop that latter chore, for want of taxes to cut.

The Editor

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