WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell practically closed the door on President Donald Trump’s push for $ 2,000 COVID-19 relief checks, declaring that Congress provided sufficient aid for the pandemic by blocking another attempt by Democrats to force a vote.
The Republican Party leader made it clear on Wednesday that he is not willing to give in, despite political pressure from Trump and even some Republican senators demanding action. Trump wants the recent $ 600 in aid increased three times. But McConnell rejected the idea of bigger House-approved “survival checks”, saying the money would go to many American families who just don’t need it.
McConnell’s refusal to act means that the additional relief that Trump wanted is practically dead.
“We just approved nearly a trillion dollars in aid a few days ago,” said McConnell, referring to the end-of-the-year package that Trump sanctioned.
McConnell added, “If families in need still need more help,” the Senate will consider “targeted smart help. No other borrowed money fire hose. “
The confrontation between the outgoing president and his own Republican Party over the $ 2,000 checks threw Congress into a chaotic end-of-year session just days before new lawmakers took office.
It’s a final stalemate, along with the nullification of Trump’s veto a comprehensive defense bill that will punctuate the president’s last days and deepen the division of the Republican Party between its new wing of Trump-style populists and what were sustainable conservative views against government spending.
Trump has been scolding Republican Party leaders and tweeted, “$ 2,000 ASAP!”
President-elect Joe Biden also supports payments and wants to expand what he calls an “initial payment” for relief.
“In this time of historic crisis and incalculable economic pain for countless American families, the president-elect supports $ 2,000 in direct payments approved by the House,” said Biden transition spokesman Andrew Bates.
The obstacle set by the Senate Republicans seems insurmountable. Most Republican Party senators seemed to accept inaction, even with an increasing number of Republicans, including two second-round senators on January 5 in Georgia, agree with Trump’s demand, some fearful of resisting him.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the checks for $ 600 would start coming out on Wednesday. Congress had established lower payments in a compromise on COVID-19’s major end-of-year relief and government funding bill that Trump reluctantly signed the law. Before signing, however, Trump demanded more.
For the second day in a row, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer tried to force the vote on the House approved bill, meeting Trump’s demand for $ 2,000 checks.
“What we’re seeing now is leader McConnell trying to cancel checks – the $ 2,000 checks desperately needed by so many American families,” said Schumer.
With the second round of the Georgia Senate election in a few days, leading Republicans warned that the Republican Party’s refusal to provide more aid as the virus worsened could hurt the outcome of these disputes.
The GOP Sens. Georgia’s David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are trying to reject Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the runoff elections this will determine which party will have a majority in the Senate. The two Republicans announced support for Trump’s call for more generous checks.
“Senate Republicans are at risk of losing two seats and control of the Senate,” Newt Gingrich, the former Congress leader, told Fox News.
McConnell tried to protect his divided Republicans from a difficult vote. On Wednesday, he suggested that he kept his word of initiating a “process” to meet Trump’s demands, even if it means that no vote will be taken.
“It is no secret that Republicans have a diversity of views,” he said.
Previously, McConnell had revealed a new bill loaded with Trump’s other priorities as a possible way out of the impasse. It included checks for $ 2,000 more specifically targeted at low-income families, as well as a complicated revocation of protections for tech companies like Facebook or Twitter under section 230 of a communications law that the president claimed was unfair to conservatives. It also addressed the establishment of a bipartisan commission to review the 2020 presidential elections Trump lost to President-elect Joe Biden.
If McConnell votes for his project, it could revive Trump’s priorities. But because the approach contains additional technology and electoral clauses, Democrats and some Republicans are likely to back off and are unlikely to have enough support in Congress to pass.
No additional votes on COVID-19 aid have been scheduled at this time. For McConnell, the procedural moves allowed him to check the commitments he made when Trump defiantly refused to sign the big holiday package last weekend. “It was a commitment and it happened,” he said.
Liberal senators, led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who support strengthening aid are blocking the action of a defense bill until a vote can be taken on Trump’s demand for $ 2,000 for most Americans.
Sanders thundered on the floor that McConnell should call his own constituents in the home state of the Republican Party leader, Kentucky, “and find out how they feel about needing immediate help in terms of a $ 2,000 check.”
Republican senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marco Rubio of Florida, among candidates for the party’s presidency in 2024, also pushed in the direction of the president. Hawley is also leading Trump’s Jan. 6 challenge for counting Electoral College results in Congress.
Other Republicans criticized the larger checks, arguing during a lively Senate debate that the price of nearly $ 400 billion was too high, relief is not directed at the needy, and Washington has already dispatched large sums for COVID-19 aid.
Senator Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Tweeted that “blindly lending” billions “so that we can send checks for $ 2,000 to millions of people who have not lost any income is a terrible policy.”
Considered a remote hypothesis, Trump’s demand gained momentum earlier in the week, when dozens of House Republicans calculated that it was better to connect with most Democrats than to challenge the outgoing president. They helped pass a bill that increased payments with a robust two-thirds vote of approval.
As Trump’s momentum fails, his attempt to change the holiday package – $ 900 billion in COVID-19 aid and $ 1.4 trillion to finance the government agencies until September – will potentially last as a final showdown before the new Congress takes office on Sunday.
The COVID-19 part of the bill revives a weekly increase in pandemic unemployment benefits – this time $ 300, until March 14 – as well as the popular Subsidy Check Protection Program for companies to keep workers on the payroll of payment. It extends eviction protections by adding a new rent assistance fund.
Americans who earn up to $ 75,000 qualify for direct payments of $ 600, which are eliminated at the highest income levels, and there is an additional payment of $ 600 per dependent child.
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Associated Press writer Ashraf Khalil of Washington contributed to this report.