Massachusetts Has Billions of Reasons to Be Grateful to Uncle Sam

There's a Chinese proverb that says, "When you drink from the stream, remember the spring."

Pondering that ancient wisdom, I find myself asking: post-pandemic, will we in Massachusetts -- and our counterparts in the 49 other states of the union -- ever remember all that our federal government did to secure our lives and our standard of living in 2020 and in 2021?

If I were a betting man, I'd bet no. We certainly will not remember.

I believe that another proverb, reputedly an Irish one, holds sway in this situation; it says, "Eaten bread is soon forgotten."

And that is a shame.  

When we finally get our lives back to normal in these divided states of America, we will need a sustained swelling of collective gratitude. There will be no better way to leach the venom from our politics, rebuild the spirit of the nation, and begin the no-longer-avoidable process of truly uniting (and treating equitably) all Americans. 

Let's turn to a select few of the more recent reasons why we in the Bay State should thank God we had a federal government to fall back upon when all was cracking and folding in Massachusetts under the attack of the coronavirus...

According to a Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation analysis of the Biden administration's recently enacted American Rescue Plan (ARP), Massachusetts will receive $4.5 billion in flexible Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Funds, "as well as billions in targeted assistance for programs closely linked to budget line items."

That targeted assistance will include $1.8 billion to support public schools, $1 billion to keep the MBTA and regional transit authorities operating, $510 million for early child care, $450 million for emergency rental and foreclosure assistance, $174.4 million for programs created under a new Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, and $150 million "to support the state's public health workforce."

There's more!

The ARP, for example, is expected to deliver $3.4 billion directly to municipal governments throughout Massachusetts, ensuring the continuation of vital local services and the jobs and paychecks of tens of thousands of municipal employees.

And, in a significant development apart from the ARP, the Biden administration has extended a federal public health emergency, which will lead to federal dollars covering most of a massive shortfall that otherwise would have occurred in MassHealth/Medicaid. the health coverage program for approximately 1.7 million residents.

I understand anyone who rejects the be-grateful-to-Uncle-Sam argument.  

People can legitimately say, This is my government, this is what it is supposed to do in a crisis, and, anyway, we the public are going to have to pay eventually for the borrowing of the trillions in federal aid we are rapidly consuming.

But I'll never buy that.

Too conveniently, too self-servingly, that kind of thinking ignores the simple good luck that has made us all Americans, by birth or immigration, and thus eligible to partake of the fruits of the world's largest economy and its most trusted currency.   

I'm so far into the other corner that I'll jump on the bandwagon of the first politician to propose that, starting next year, we make October 1, the first day of the federal fiscal year, an official day of remembrance, "Federal Government Appreciation Day," on which we stop and ponder how bad things could have been, how desperate we and our families could have become, if our government couldn't, or wouldn't, have borrowed our way out of this crisis.

UPDATE, 4-30-21:  According to tabulations by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Massachusetts has received more federal relief aid, per capita, during the COVID-19 national emergency than all but two states and the District of Columbia.  The top five per capita amounts recipients are: Washington, D.C., $12,845; New York, $10,881; Vermont, $10,340; Massachusetts, $9,893; North Dakota, $9,844.  Summarizing the foundation's report on this subject, the State House News Service on April 26 wrote: "As of April 15, Massachusetts had received $69.19 billion in federal assistance dating back to the start of the pandemic, which the foundation said was the 11th most of any state.  About $20.5 billion of that came in the form of Paycheck Protection Program loans, and another $11.36 billion was for federal pandemic unemployment compensation."