Coronavirus Reveals Utter Sameness of Democrats and Republicans

Libertarians keep saying that there are very few meaningful differences between the Republicans and the Democrats. And one of the many things revealed by the political response to the coronavirus pandemic is…that there are very few meaningful differences between the Republicans and Democrats.

You can see that in the $2 trillion CARES Act, the single largest spending bill in U.S. history. It passed with 96 yes votes and zero no votes in the Senate. (Four senators could not attend the vote.) After Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) tried to instigate a conventional recorded vote on the measure, the House passed it on a voice vote so that individual members didn't have to go on the record supporting it. That was something on which the top Democrat (Nancy Pelosi) and top Republican (Kevin McCarthy) joined forces. As Massie told me, they did that to shield current members from having to explain their votes in the fall's election. Technically, the bill passed unanimously, even though he and a few others said they would have voted against it if given the opportunity.