OUR FUTURE NOW! PODCAST EPISODE # 5
How exploitation of the CARES Act has impacted working families is the title of the fifth episode of Our Future: Now! A National Children’s Campaign Podcast. The show’s co-host Jonah Gottlieb and Natalie Mebane are joined by Kayalah Brathwaite, Director of Operations and Logistics at Zero Hour, to talk about The CARES Act and how greedy oil executives advocated for their own corporate special interests ahead of the interests of working families in response to the devastating health and economic fallout from the coronavirus.
To listen to the Podcast you can go here. It can also be heard on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts and at the National Children’s Campaign and Parentology website.
In the episode they discuss how the stimulus legislation lacked the strong oversight provisions to prevent corporate special interests from finding loopholes to steer money towards themselves that was originally intended for small businesses and working families. Even the follow-up bill, The Heroes Act, didn’t include measures like The reWind Act, which would specifically prevent the fossil fuel industry from getting their hands on these taxpayer funds.
The most egregious example came in the case of Diamond Offshore Drilling, which got $9.7 million in tax refunds and then asked a bankruptcy judge to give $9.7 millions in bonuses to their executives. This outrageous scenario was repeated 37 times by different fossil fuel industry companies.
Brathwaite describes her advocacy efforts on behalf the environment, the fact that her parents are essential works who are especially impacted by the coronavirus, and the good and bad aspects of The Heroes Act. Among the good provisions was money allocated to states who are hemorrhaging tax revenue. This matter because states will be forced institute draconian budget cuts since they are constitutionally mandated to balance their budgets unlike the Federal Government.
Another issue that was addressed, which the pandemic has painfully exposed, is the lack of broadband access throughout the country. For too many students distance learning is hugely problematic because this long-standing issue hasn’t been addressed.
They also talk about their efforts to pressure the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-Ky.) to take up the House passed bill and about other provisions they would like to see that would provide working families with the true relief they need to get through these trying times.