Recently on his Senator FB Page (as opposed to his campaign FB page) PA State Senator Doug Mastriano posted a link to this:
The text reads:
Pennsylvanians who incurred funeral expenses for a COVID-19-related death can apply for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) COVID-19 funeral assistance program to help ease the financial burden brought on by the pandemic.
The program will provide reimbursement for expenses incurred for funeral services, including but not limited to transportation to identify the deceased individual, the transfer of remains, a burial plot or cremation niche, a marker or headstone, clergy or officiant services, the use of funeral home equipment or staff, and cremation or interment costs.
Eligible applicants can apply for the funeral assistance program by calling FEMA’s COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Helpline at 1-844-684-6333 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday to begin the application process.
What the good Senator has decided not to reveal to his constituents can be found in this paragraph at WESA:
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 earmarked $2 billion to cover funeral costs for COVID-related deaths. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 also provided FEMA $50 billion to spend on disaster relief
By the way, Julia Zenkevich started the piece by saying this:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided $104 million in funeral assistance funds to Pennsylvanians who lost loved ones to COVID-19, the agency announced this week.
To be more specific, Doug Mastriano decided not to tell his constituents that a large chunk of this FEMA funding comes from a piece of legislation that got absolutely no GOP support in Congress.
That money would simply not be available had the GOP succeeded in voting down the legislation.
Simply on principle alone he should be instructing his constituents to avoid this guv'ment intrusion into their lives.
Yea, he left that part out.
Also, can I bring up a rather uncomfortable matter?
Setting aside all the deaths from Covid pre-vaccines and all the deaths from those who can't benefit from the vaccines because, for example, they're immuno-compromised.
This is not about those deaths. This is about these deaths:
79 percent of COVID-19-related deaths among individuals who had an infection date between Jan 1, 2021 and Mar 7, 2022 were in unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated people.
That page goes on to say that about 20,000 Pennsylvanians have died since January 1, 2021.
If something close to 80% of those deaths are those who were unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated, then we're talking about something like 16,000 un- (or under-) vaccinated Pennsylvanians dead from Covid-19.
How many of those were in sympathy with what Mastriano reportedly said said at a recent "Walk as a Free People" rally:
Mastriano urged attendees to back his efforts to support a Pennsylvania audit, as well as his bill banning the state or local governments, including school districts, from mandating any vaccines.
“We need to walk as free people,” Mastriano told the crowd.”You’re sovereign over your own body.”
If Mastriano's followers are demanding the freedom to walk through Pennsylvania unsullied by any guv'ment mandated vaccine, then they should accept the responsibility for their actions and of any event that should occur because of that exercise in their freedom. Freedom!
Which is to say, they shouldn't expect the Federal Government to bail their family out of any Covid funeral expenses just because Doug (or someone else pushing this stupid argument) stroked their body sovereignty hard-on regarding the vaccines.
So why is PA State Senator Doug Mastriano telling them about a federal assistance program they shouldn't want in the first place?
This is of course not to say that the Federal Government shouldn't be offering this program.
Of course it should.
I am sure there are many vaccinated members of many conflicted families in Pennsylvania who've lost an unvaccinated MAGA member (or two) to the virus and now face the funeral costs of burying them. This blog post is not about those Pennsylvanians.
Those Pennsylvanians deserve a double dose of sympathy.
My point is that Doug Mastriano is being hypocritical in pushing a program that his followers shouldn't want in the first place.
He can't have it both ways. He can't scream "body sovereignty!" one moment and then in another assure the free walking people not to worry about the funeral expenses that would arise if they die from Covid the invited by not being vaccinated.
Doug Mastriano, you're a hypocrite.
