For days, news outlets have been reporting on the Coronavirus Relief bill, AKA Covid Stimulus, etc. Sometimes described as a 5,000 page or 6,000 page bill (it’s 5,593 pages), reports focus on $600 payments to individuals, but the bill also includes extended unemployment payments, another $284B of Paycheck Protection Payments, and $25B of rental assistance, among other things.

Except there is no such thing as a Coronavirus Relief bill. These payments are earmarks in the annual government funding bill called the Consolidated Appropriations Act (2021) which is why it’s 5,600 pages long.

And what happens when Congress decides it cannot agree on the Coronavirus stimulus? The government shuts down.

Stop voting. It doesn’t work.