Congress is world-famous for the endless litany of things it throws money at, and since reclaiming both Congress and the White House, Democrats have added to that rich, expensive tradition. And they did so under the guise of COVID-19 relief funds. While there is plenty of room for disagreement for what counts as legitimate pandemic spending, Jason Chaffetz and Eric Eggers take a deep dive this week on the Drill Down into some of the more surprising items on Congress’ new spending spree.
One provision in the bill allocated $600,000 for two gazebos for the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Guantanamo used to house hundreds of inmates, but as of 2021 it only holds 39 and is routinely considered for closure. But the gazebos must have been badly needed.
Also consider the over $360 million appropriated for the USS Boise, one of the Navy’s next generation attack submarines. Few would argue against investing in state-of-the-art war ships but to dress it up as COVID-19 related is remarkably brazen.
Over $350 billion of relief spending was sent to state and local governments, and this has drawn the ire of Republicans across the country. This third COVID stimulus bill was designed to send more of those funds to governments that implemented pandemic-related shutdowns, which left many Republican dominated regions without easy access to that huge windfall from Congress.
Now with cases surging in states like Missouri and Florida, one can’t help but ask: how many lives could be saved if money spent on attack submarines was instead targeted directly to states and cities in urgent need of relief?
