Work on President Biden's stimulus bill is kicking into high gear now that the impeachment trial is over. One of the most argued about provisions of the bill is the billions included to help state and local governments.
Republicans are saying that help is not needed, but the chart above (using figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) shows the opposite. More than 1.3 million state and local government jobs have been lost in 2020 due to the Trump Pandemic Recession. Many of those jobs are needed, but state and local governments just can't afford them right now.
Republicans were willing to go big with a trillion dollar tax cut that went many to the rich and corporations. It is hypocritical that they now want to cheap-out when it comes to saving state and local jobs.
The help for state and local governments must stay in the stimulus bill, and Democrats must be firm about this.
