WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s pressure for greater $ 2,000 COVID-19 relief checks stagnated on Tuesday in the Senate as Republicans blocked a Democratic proposed poll and split into their own ranks over whether to increase spending or challenge the White House.
The obstacle set up by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell may not be sustainable as the pressure builds. Trump wants the Republican-led chamber to follow the House and increase checks by $ 600 for millions of Americans. An increasing number of Republicans, including two senators in the January 5 runoff election in Georgia, said they would support the larger number. But most Republican senators are opposed to more spending, even if they are also afraid to upset Trump.
The senators will be back on Wednesday, while McConnell is planning a way out of the political stalemate, but the outcome is highly uncertain.
“One question remains today: do Senate Republicans join the rest of America in supporting $ 2,000 checks?” Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said when making a motion to vote.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said some of the $ 600 payments could be sent by direct deposit to Americans’ bank accounts on Tuesday night. Mnuchin tweeted that paper checks will start coming out on Wednesday.
The clash over the $ 2,000 checks threw Congress into a chaotic end of the year session, just days before new lawmakers took office in the new year. It is avoiding action on another priority – overturning Trump’s veto on a broad defense bill that has been passed every year for 60 years.
Speaking a little, McConnell signaled an alternative approach to Trump’s checks that may not split his party as much, but may result in no action.
The Republican Party leader introduced new legislation on Tuesday, linking the president’s demand for greater checks with two other Trump priorities – repealing protections for technology companies like Facebook or Twitter that the president claimed was unfair to conservatives, as well as the establishment of a bipartisan commission to review 2020 presidential election he lost to president-elect Joe Biden.
“The Senate will start a process,” said the Republican leader. He said little more, only that it would bring the president’s demand for the $ 2,000 checks and other issues “in focus”.
Political Science Professor at Meredith College David McLennan he said he does not expect the major stimulus effort to pass.
“This has never been favored by Mitch McConnell. As a majority leader, he controls the Senate agenda and has already started to cut ties with President Trump, so he does not feel indebted to President Trump,” said McLennan.
The president’s last-minute pressure for more checks leaves Republicans deeply divided between those who align with Trump’s populist instincts and those who adhere to what were more traditional conservative views against government spending. Congress agreed to payments under $ 600 in an agreement on the major end-of-year relief bill that Trump reluctantly signed.
Liberal senators, led by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who support humanitarian aid are blocking action on the defense bill until a vote can be taken on Trump’s demand for $ 2,000 for most Americans.
“The working class in this country today faces more economic despair than at any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s,” said Sanders as he tried to force a vote on relief checks. “Working families need help now.”
But McConnell objected a second time.
The fact that the bill reached the Senate is the result of an astute policy by Mayor Nancy Pelosi. His sudden decision to support the president’s politically popular demand put McConnell in a difficult position, especially with the two Republican Senate seats in Georgia at the ballot box next week.
“He is less concerned with the president and what the president can say or tweet about him than with Georgia and kind of maintain control of the Senate at the next Congress,” said McLennan. “I think that both the president and the president Pelosi put McConnell in a very dire situation. “
Georgia’s two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, announced on Tuesday that they support Trump’s plan for further checks as they face Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the second round that will determine which party controls the Senate.
“I am very happy to support the president,” said Perdue on Fox News. Loeffler said in an interview with Fox that she also supports reinforced relief checks.
The GOP blockade is causing turmoil for some as the virus crisis worsens across the country and Trump expands his unexpected demands.
Trump repeated his demand in a tweet ahead of Tuesday’s Senate session: “$ 2,000 for our great people, not $ 600!”
Following Trump’s example, Republican senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marco Rubio of Florida, among candidates for the party’s presidency in 2024, are pushing the party toward the president.
“We have the votes. Let’s vote today ”, tweeted Hawley.
Other Republicans criticized the bigger checks, saying that the price of nearly $ 400 billion was too high, that aid is not directed at the needy, and that Washington has already dispatched large sums for COVID’s help.
“We spent $ 4 trillion on this problem,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
The House vote on Monday to approve Trump’s request was an impressive turnaround. A few days ago, during a brief Christmas Eve session, Republicans blocked Trump’s sudden demand for bigger checks, as he refused to sign COVID-19’s broader aid and end-of-life financing bill. year.
While Trump spent days furious at his private club in Florida, where he is on vacation, millions of Americans saw unemployment benefits end and the country risked a federal government shutdown on Tuesday.
Dozens of Republicans calculated that it was better to link up with Democrats to increase pandemic payments, rather than upsetting the president he is leaving and the constituents relying on the money. House Democrats led the vote, 275-134, but 44 Republicans joined almost all Democrats for a robust two-thirds vote of approval.
It is highly possible that McConnell will get votes ahead of both the House approved measure supporting Trump’s $ 2,000 checks and his own new version, linking it to the repeal of the technology company’s liability shield in “section 230. “of the communications law, as well as the new presidential election review committee.
This is a process that almost guarantees that none of the accounts will be approved.
Trump pressure may fail in the Senate, but the debate over the size and scope of the package – $ 900 billion in aid from COVID-19 and $ 1.4 trillion to fund government agencies – is potentially a final confrontation before the new Congress is sworn in on Sunday.
What if the bill is not passed in the Senate before January 20, it could make it easier for Biden to push for another aid package more quickly, said McLennan.
“It may be something that works best for Joe Biden – a good way to start his government – and not such a good way to end President Trump’s administration,” he said.
For now, checks for $ 600 must be delivered, along with other aid, among the largest rescue packages of their kind.
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 higher income levels, and there is an additional payment of $ 600 per dependent child.
Biden supports the $ 2,000 checks and said on Tuesday that the aid package is just an “entrance” to what he plans to deliver when he takes office.
Economists said a $ 600 check will help, but it is a far cry from the purchasing power that a $ 2,000 check would provide for the economy.
“It will make a big difference if it’s $ 600 versus $ 2,000,” said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s.
The president also opposed the financing of foreign aid that his own government had requested and promised to send Congress “a red version” with the spending items it wants to remove. But these are only suggestions to Congress. Democrats said they would resist these cuts.
Laura Leslie, head of the WRAL Capitol Bureau, contributed to this report