Is this something of a pretty good negotiation?
I mean if it was just Republicans deciding
would it look completely different or if it
was just Democrats deciding would it look
completely different?
Yea that's kinda trick to know, right?
So we're in a world of divided government.
The Republican party controls the Senate and
the white house.
The Democratic party controls the house, so
any piece of legislation has to clear all
three of those sticking points ordinarily
speaking and so that means you have to give
some ground in both directions.
I saw some proposals in the House that instead
of a one time cash payment to Americans, there
should be an ongoing cash payment to regular
Americans until this crisis is over.
And then you had some folks who said, no we
don't want to give any cash payments to anyone
and this bill is way too big.
So I do think, the bill reflects a mix of
liberal and conservative priorities.
in terms of what the balance is, like is this
more of a liberal bill or a conservative bill
I'm not sure that we've had enough time to
really did into it yet and really think through
all the trade-offs and unintended consequences
and ramifications of everything that's in
there.
There's this great old line, if you like laws
or sausages, don't watch either being made.
Which in fact, I contend is deeply unfair
to sausage makers who are much more on the
same page and follow much stricter guidelines
than policy makers do.
But its normal right in this process you know
you had some more liberal democrats who wanted
to add some green energy climate sort of restrictions
to provisions of the bill related to the energy
sector.
You had some more conservative republicans
who were concerned that the extension and
improvement of unemployment insurance was
too generous and would disincentive people
from going back to work.
So that sort of stuff you know people who
really follow politics sometimes view that
with distaste.
Like, why are they playing politics with what
many people would perceive as important legislation.
That's what politicians do, right.
They are responding to the incentives in front
of them, thinking about what they believe
is good public policy which they differ tremendously
on what they think good public policy looks
like.
And also thinking about what their constituents
want.
What's going to keep them in office.
What's going to help them be a successful
representative and that differs for different
sorts of folks.
So you saw some of that hemming and hawwing.
You got a package through that I think reflects
sort of that you know major pieces of legislation,
no one got what they wanted.
This is no ones dream bill that's everything
that they say they need and nothing you don't.
