Did Dems get rolled on US’s new rescue plan?

So a deal was reached on the bill to supplement the money for small business and other new pandemic relief. Congressional Republicans had wanted $250 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program for small-business loans. The final bill added up to a $480 billion package, with Democrats winning aid for hospitals and increased coronavirus testing, plus provisions for smaller banks to handle some loans and for small businesses to get money even if they didn’t have a prior relationship with a bank.
Democrats failed to get a lot more, mainly money for state and local governments. Liberals immediately blamed congressional Democrats for “caving.” Paul Krugman was “baffled.” Here’s Michael Grunwald’s summary:
What happened? One theory is that Democratic leaders botched the negotiations. Perhaps House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could have gotten a House bill passed with all the relief efforts the Democrats believed were essential and then dared Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican senators to ignore it. Or they could just have refused a deal until Republicans added more, just as they did when McConnell tried to jam the smaller bill through the Senate last week only to have Democrats block it.
Theory two to explain the Democrats’ support for the current package is that everything in the compromise bill is something they wanted. And while Republicans marginally favour the money for the Paycheck Protection Program, they would have been just as happy overall to make an issue of the Democrats’ objections to the smaller bill than to actually have a bill. That’s how I read McConnell’s decision to force Democrats to oppose it last week.
The Pelosi-bashing liberals believe that Democrats have all the leverage because Republicans, with President Donald Trump the incumbent on the ballot this fall, desperately need the economy to recover. Democrats, that thinking goes, are basically doing Republicans a political favor by going along, and they should demand something in return.
Perhaps that’s true, but I think it underestimates the extent to which much of the Republican Party simply rejects, well, modern economics and fact-based public policy. For some Republicans, nothing is wrong with the economy that opening things back up — as some governors like Georgia’s Brian Kemp are moving to do as soon as this week — won’t solve. Indeed, some voices in the Republican-aligned media are still calling the social-distancing lockdowns nothing but a Democratic plot to ruin the economy and defeat Trump in November.
And many Republicans believe government spending is just irrelevant to economic growth. Sure, a lot of small-business people are solid Republicans, so GOP politicians don’t mind funneling some money their way, but it’s not clear that they see the federal help as necessary for a recovery per se.
After all, if Republicans did think that way, they would be desperate to send money to state and local governments — money that not only could keep economically important services intact, but also prevent large-scale layoffs of government workers and contractors.
Even if Republicans believe that people who work for private business are more deserving of relief than those who work for the public sector, they should be able to see that consumer dollars spent on goods and services don’t just come from private-sector workers. A population of unemployed government employees is an economic disaster when they stop buying stuff. But as we know, Republicans fought hard against including money for state and local governments in the bill. Remember that Trump is still mainly pushing a payroll tax cut (and the return of the three-martini lunch) as his preferred form of emergency relief, even though no one thinks that makes any sense.
—Bloomberg