McConnell blocks initial Democratic effort for
$2,000 Covid stimulus checks
Growing number of Republicans back Trump’s demand to
increase relief payments as party plunges into chaos and conflict
David Smith
in Washington
@smithinamerica
Tue 29 Dec
2020 19.38 GMT
A growing
number of Republicans on Tuesday backed Donald Trump’s demand to increase
coronavirus relief payments to US citizens from $600 to $2,000, though the
Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, blocked a Democrats’ effort to quickly
pass the measure.
Trump’s
party has been plunged into chaos and conflict over his demands to increase
one-off cheques for Americans, a measure that passed the Democratic-controlled
House of Representatives on Monday.
“$2000 for
our great people, not $600!,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday, before using a racist
term to describe Covid-19. “They have suffered enough from the China Virus!!!”
Some
critics saw Trump’s move as an apparent return to his posture as a populist
outsider and disrupter of the Washington establishment, and as loyalty tests to
strengthen his sway after he leaves offices.
His
position has also threatened to divide his party and created a dilemma
forMcConnell, while Democrats – and Senator Bernie Sanders – see a renewed
chance to pass a higher amount of aid.
Put on the
spot by Trump, more Republicans on Tuesday abandoned their previous opposition
to the higher sum and came over to the president’s side. Kelly Loeffler and
David Perdue, senators from Georgia facing tight races for re-election next
week, tweeted their support for $2,000 direct payments. Loeffler told the Fox
News channel: “I’ve stood by the president 100% of the time. I’m proud to do
that and I’ve said absolutely we need to get relief to Americans now and I will
support that.”
Senator
Marco Rubio of Florida did likewise, stating: “I agree with the president that
millions of working-class families are in dire need of additional relief, which
is why I support $2,000 in direct payments.” Fellow Republican Josh Hawley has
also expressed support.
Final
passage of the aid increase in the Senate would require 60 votes and the
backing of a dozen Republicans to hand Trump an unlikely victory.
The Georgia
runoffs could weigh heavily in McConnell’s thinking on whether to allow such a
vote to go ahead.
As Trump
played golf in Florida on Tuesday, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, made a
plea from the Senate floor: “In the wealthiest nation on earth, modern day
breadlines stretch for miles down American highways. The fastest way to get
money into Americans’ pockets is to send some of their tax dollars right back
from where they came.
“$2,000
stimulus cheques could mean the difference between American families having
groceries for a few extra weeks or going hungry. The difference between paying
the rent or being kicked out of your home that you’ve lived in for years. It
could buy precious time for tens of millions of people as the vaccine
thankfully makes its way across the country.”
Schumer
demanded: “Will Senate Republicans stand against the House of Representatives,
the Democratic majority in the Senate, and the president of their own party to
prevent these $2,000 checks from going out the door?”
McConnell
objected, blocking initial consideration of the measure, but was set to come
under growing pressure from Democrats and members of his own party to hold an
up-or-down vote this week.
For example
Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, threatened to block McConnell
from holding a separate vote on Wednesday to override Trump’s veto of a $740bn
defence bill unless the majority leader yields.
“This week
on the Senate floor Mitch McConnell wants to vote to override Trump’s veto of
the $740bn defense funding bill and then head home for the New Year,” Sanders
said. “I’m going to object until we get a vote on legislation to provide a
$2,000 direct payment to the working class.”
The defence
bill is heading to the Senate after the House voted 322 to 87 to override
Trump’s presidential veto. It was the first time either chamber of Congress has
delivered such a rebuke. Some 109 Republicans joined their Democratic
colleagues to ensure the required two-thirds majority.
This
prompted further anger and criticism from Trump against his own party. “Weak
and tired Republican “leadership” will allow the bad Defense Bill to pass,” he
tweeted, complaining that the legislation will change the names of military
bases that honour Confederate leaders and maintain legal protects for big tech
companies.
Trump has
been less engaged with Congress than previous presidents and remained on the
sidelines during months of negotiations over the $900bn coronavirus relief
package, only to threaten to withdraw his signature before finally caving in
last Sunday.
But the
current disputes appear connected to his fixation with overturning his election
defeat. He has railed against McConnell and others for acknowledging Biden as
president-elect and called on Republicans to raise objections when Congress
gathers to certify the outcome on 6 January. Some analysts have described it as
less a power grab than an attention grab by a man who sees the media spotlight
shifting to Biden.
Trump
tweeted: “....Can you imagine if the Republicans stole a Presidential Election
from the Democrats – All hell would break out. Republican leadership only wants
the path of least resistance. Our leaders (not me, of course!) are pathetic.
They only know how to lose!”
Trump’s
erratic behaviour in the final weeks of his presidency have even alienated
media owner and longtime ally Rupert Murdoch. His New York Post newspaper said
in an editorial this week: “If you insist on spending your final days in office
threatening to burn it all down, that will be how you are remembered. Not as a
revolutionary, but as the anarchist holding the match.”
McConnell blocks immediate vote on $2,000
stimulus checks, leaving fate of larger payouts in limbo.
Senator Mitch McConnell’s decision to link together
all of President Trump’s demands could doom any chance of passage.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/29/us/joe-biden-trump
Senator
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, on Tuesday blocked an effort
to hold an immediate vote to increase stimulus checks to $2,000, saying instead
that the Senate would “begin a process” to consider bigger payments, along with
other demands issued by President Trump, leaving the fate of the measure
unclear as more Republicans clamored to endorse it.
Mr.
McConnell did not elaborate further on how — or when — the Senate would move to
consider Mr. Trump’s demands, which the president made on Sunday after finally
agreeing to sign a $900 billion stimulus package and government spending bill
into law. Mr. Trump had held the package hostage for days, insisting that
lawmakers triple the direct payments to $2,000 from $600, remove a legal shield
for companies like YouTube and Facebook and investigate “very substantial voter
fraud.”
The
president relented only after Republican lawmakers persuaded him to sign the
legislation, saying on Sunday that he had been promised Congress would take up
his demands.
Mr.
McConnell’s decision to block a vote on increasing the stimulus payments came
as a growing number of Republican senators voiced support for the larger
checks, and as pressure mounted on the Senate to vote on the measure.
Senator
Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, tried to force an immediate
vote on increasing the size of the checks using a procedural tactic that allows
senators to advance legislation unless another senator objects. Mr. McConnell
blocked the measure.
“Senate
Democrats strongly support $2,000 checks. Even President Trump supports $2,000
checks,” Mr. Schumer said. “There’s one question left today: Do Senate
Republicans join with the rest of America in supporting $2,000 checks?”
A growing
number of Republican senators have endorsed higher stimulus payments, including
Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, both Georgia lawmakers facing tight
runoff elections next week, who announced on Tuesday that they supported larger
stimulus checks.
They joined
a handful of others, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Josh
Hawley of Missouri and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who have
backed increasing the checks to $2,000. But the majority of Senate Republicans
have so far remained opposed to the plan.
Mr.
McConnell’s decision to link all of Mr. Trump’s demands together could doom any
chance of passage. While Democrats all support larger checks, they are unlikely
to endorse a hasty overhaul of the legal shield currently in place for social
media companies, especially measures put forward by Republican senators aimed
at confronting what they believe is anti-conservative bias.
Democrats
are also likely to resist anything that could be seen as trying to undermine
the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, as Mr. Trump has suggested. Mr.
McConnell, who has privately urged his members not to object to the election
results when Congress meets on Jan. 6 to ratify them, portrayed the president’s
request as “exploring further ways to protect the sanctity of American
ballots.” But Mr. Trump has been laser-focused on getting Congress to
investigate “the very substantial voter fraud which took place,” an assertion
he has repeated contrary to considerable evidence.
The House
voted on Monday evening to increase the size of the checks to $2,000, daring
Senate Republicans to either approve the heftier sum or defy Mr. Trump. The
president kept up his campaign for the measure on Tuesday, demanding in a tweet
“$2000 for our great people, not $600!”
The House
vote, which just reached the two-thirds majority needed to pass, came a day
after Mr. Trump finally signed off on a $900 billion pandemic relief package he
initially denounced as a “disgrace” and refused to sign. The legislation, which
passed by a vote of 275 to 134, was supported by 44 Republican members.
In signing
the relief bill on Sunday night, Mr. Trump claimed in a statement that the
Senate would “start the process for a vote” on legislation that would increase
direct payments and pledged that “much more money is coming.”
Republican
lawmakers in the House were visibly frustrated with Mr. Trump’s demand. Some of
the president’s closest allies, including Representatives Steve Scalise of
Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican, and Jim Jordan of Ohio, voted against the measure,
and Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the Ways and
Means Committee, complained on the House floor that the proposal had been
“hastily dropped on us at the last minute” and wouldn’t assist those who needed
it most.
“I worry that
this whopping $463 billion won’t do what’s needed, stimulate the economy or
help workers get back to work,” Mr. Brady said.
— Catie
Edmondson
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