I sent letters to Senators Brown and Portman as well as Representative Stivers with the following text. I know that and $2 will buy a cup of coffee, but at least I have expressed my feelings. And of course I know the issue is more complex than I describe, but it is the framework for the approach I think we should be taking.

*************************************************

Congress is now debating a major financial package reportedly to put cash in the hands of citizens during this pandemic and related financial crisis. It also apparently it includes a bail out of corporations in various impacted industries. I support cash pay outs to citizens. Corporate bail outs, however, are not in America’s national interest.

I am a retired 80 year old. All the money I will ever have is invested in stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments. So I am not anti-capitalist. However, corporations have demonstrated for decades that  they have no national loyalty to the United States or any other country. I don’t think Americans should feel any special loyalty to them.

I could support federal loans to American businesses and companies hit by the crisis. Alternately, I would prefer to support federal purchase of an ownership share in those companies at current market price to be resold on the open market at some specified future date. I think either of these options, if structured properly, could be in our national interest. However, we have seen what companies did with the windfall tax cut they received just a couple of years ago. Generally they did not invest in their employees or plant and equipment; they bought back their own shares.

I strongly encourage the Senate and House of Representatives to fashion a financial package that is bold, but focused almost exclusively on individual citizens. We are the ones, not corporations, who will suffer both the coronavirus and the economic impact.