Walking around Monroe’s Square on a sunny day recently seemed to me to be like any other summer.
There are sidewalk visitors outside of Baumgartner’s, Pancho and Lefty’s and Northside. People are holding the leashes to their pets in one hand and a beverage in another.
There are cars parked liberally on both the inside and outside of the Square.
Nothing looks out of place compared to past years — except some people are wearing masks over their faces.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, last week Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers issued an order mandating that people wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus. We’ve been dealing with COVID-19 in earnest since February and have been aware it was coming since January.
We’ve seen schools close, been through “safer at home” practices, dealt with consumer shortages of paper products and cleaning supplies, but most important overall is we have felt the crippling economic downturn. It was quantified for citizens at the end of July. In the most recent economic quarterly report for the United States, we suffered the greatest downturn in our nation’s history.
People have lost jobs to COVID-19, unemployment claims climb faster than state agencies have the ability to process them. Our woefully inept federal government has given up on providing additional stimulus through increased unemployment benefits and rent/mortgage protection.
Many large corporations, who have continued to function under COVID-19, have applied for and received COVID-19 stimulus money. In an egregiously unethical period of federal spending in our nation’s history, businesses have received half-a-trillion dollars in COVID-19 aid from the federal government. The federal government isn’t disclosing who is getting the money.
Late last month Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) was talking with business leaders of defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which receives 70% of its business from the federal government. Lockheed Martin has had a profitable year and was going to post 15% improved financial returns over this same period in 2019. Yet Lockheed Martin applied for and received money from the CARES Act, which is supposed to provide aid to businesses struggling due to COVID-19.
Lockheed Martin is not struggling; its increased profitability from 2019 to 2020 is $3.5 billion.
By the way, Lockheed Martin has reported on its own website 13 pages of political contributions to campaigns for office, these hundreds of contributions sometimes reach $100,000 in a single check, such as to the Republican Governor’s Association. Please don’t think Lockheed Martin’s contributions are only to members of the GOP, Lockheed Martin supports candidates from both major parties. When you’re a defense contractor you can’t leave any suit empty-pocketed.
Just last week, as Congress was considering a “COVID-19 bailout bill,” the legislation turned into a moneymaker for defense contractors. Lockheed Martin produces the fifth-generation F-35 joint strike fighter. In Congresses’ infinite wisdom, the COVID-19 relief bill included $686 million in additional money for Lockheed Martin to build more of these jets.
Meanwhile the same bill reduced improved unemployment benefits for those who lost jobs to COVID-19 from $600 per month to $200 per month.
Is there any wonder when the government is delivering aid, which should go to citizens so they can pay for rent, food, clothing — the basic necessities — our government says “no” to the people, but “yes” to lucrative contractors who don’t need the money anyway?
One of the many problems among our long-term federal legislators in Washington, D.C., is that this kind of graft and pork-belly politics is business as usual.
The federal government appears to have given up on helping people through COVID-19 financially. That’s sad because other nations who have brought the virus under control needed to support their citizens considerably during the crisis.
We seem so removed from the health effects of COVID-19 in Green County. As of Monday, we had only 130 total reported cases during the entire pandemic and only one death. Since July 17 the national trend of daily COVID-19 cases appears to be cycling downward, which is good for us all.
Gov. Evers’ mask mandate fell flat, which virtually all law enforcement agencies responding that they won’t enforce it. I can’t blame them. I’ve never approved of unfunded mandates that put burdens on local governments. I’ll continue to wear my mask and social distance. I’ll step around those “patio gatherings” on the Square, which I enjoy seeing and remind me that there is some semblance of real life remaining in the world.
— Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.
