If corporate America wants bailouts, Dems better force a lot in return

1000% correct.

Bailouts are coming. I'd like to suggest one simple rule for Democrats to follow right now:

Bailout people, not corporations.

Not banks, not airlines, not cruises, not oil.

People.

— Stephanie Taylor (@StephanieTaylor) March 16, 2020

The only thing Democrats should be asking for in a legislative package today is this.

1. Paid sick leave for every worker in America.

2. Funded by a dollar-for-dollar rollback in the corporate tax cuts that were done by the GOP Tax Scam.

3. With tax credits for companies that give paid sick leave to employees making under $50,000/ $25 an hour as of April 1, 2020.

4. Extended unemployment benefits and the removal of all barriers and extra paperwork that ALEC states like Wisconsin have put in place to keep people from receiving such benefits.

Any stabilization/bailout that comes to industries such as airlines, retail and food service that will be forced into cutbacks due to the lack of business resulting from this crisis must come with massive strings attached.

1. The only debt these companies can take on must be used to retire older, more expensive debt.

2. No stock buybacks for several years, or else any bailout funds are repaid to the Treasury IMMEDIATELY.

3. Public documentation from any companies that receive bailout funds showing what they spent their money on from December 2017 (when the GOP Tax Scam was passed) to March 2020. And it must be recevied before they get a dime. Make the public see just how much these companies blew on debt and stock buybacks, and haul them up to Capitol Hill and make them answer for why they chose those priorities over investing in their companies and employees.

Instead, we see the Social Security-eligible House leadership of House Democrats caring more about "getting something done" short-term over doing something that would lead to real change and an actual improvement in the way this country does business.

this is what i mean when i say House Democrats are absolutely terrible at politics. the correct response to republican demands for a corporate giveaway is to reject the giveaway and dare the GOP to deny sick leave to American workers https://t.co/yUvSQJJQhN

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) March 14, 2020

I made points along that theme to @MikeGrunwald. @HouseDemocrats are failing to realize the strength of their hand & are thus underplaying it badly, with consequences ranging from threatened elections in November & impermanent paid sick leave to oversight. https://t.co/FjaE7cGJmt pic.twitter.com/or74EnDEPy

— Jeff Hauser (@jeffhauser) March 17, 2020

EDIT- And it is especially absurd for any politician to consider cutting the payroll tax and gutting Social Security as a way to "help."

Don't buy this. First, half the payroll tax cut goes to *employers.* Second, only people with salaries above $660k can have hit the cap at this point in year.

Meanwhile, someone laid off or otherwise without income gets nothing from payroll tax cut.

Just. Send. People. Money. https://t.co/VOt8sc858k

— Seth Hanlon (@SethHanlon) March 17, 2020