Senate GOP gets it backward - chooses SCOTUS over stimulus

Despite it being only 3 weeks before the November election, and despite over 25 million Americans receiving unemployment benefits as job growth continues to slow down, it still seems likely that there will be another week with no stimulus coming from DC.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, sent out a notice to lawmakers Monday saying “that due to the Trump Administration’s failure to reach an agreement on coronavirus relief, no votes are expected in the House this week.” The House is not in session this week and most members are away from Washington. But they remain on 24-hour standby, though, should an agreement be reached.

Trump’s changes in direction last week -- first calling off talks in a tweet, then saying he wanted a bigger package than even Democrats have proposed -- may have hardened Pelosi’s resolve to hold firm. On Sunday she called the White House offer a “miserable and deadly failure."

And even if Trump and Pelosi reach an agreement, and the House of Representatives passes that deal, the GOP-run Senate seems likely to keep it from going through.

One of the people said Mnuchin’s offer to Pelosi wouldn’t have enough Republican votes to pass the Senate without major changes.

Some senators said that the spending levels being discussed were unacceptable and that ballooning the deficit will damage their standing with voters. Others said that a deal of that size would hand Pelosi and the Democrats a major victory right before the election, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

There also were objections to some of the policies, including expanding eligibility for the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans have been trying to dismantle, and aid to state governments.

C'mon guys, can't we crank out more of these things?

The stupidity of the Senate GOP amazes me, as not only is shoving through a Supreme Court justice before the election unpopular and making them more likely to lose, but NOT acting on stimulus also increases voter anger against the Senate GOP.

Apparently the Senate GOP has seen the polls move even more against them for these screwed-up priorities. Because on the same day that their Supreme Court Justice dodged, evaded and generally annoyed 2/3 of the country iin the Judiciary Committee, Moscow Mitch says the Senate GOP will now try another "mini-stimulus" vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he's scheduling a procedural vote on a GOP COVID-19 relief bill next week, pushing aid to hard-hit businesses in a smaller-bore approach to virus relief that Democrats say they won't go for. The Kentucky Republican says the first item of Senate business when the chamber returns next Monday will be a procedural vote on a scaled-back aid bill. Democrats filibustered a GOP-drafted aid bill last month and recent talks on a larger deal between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., fell apart this past weekend, probably for good.

Basically this is a re-vote on a bill that failed to receive 60 votes and got shot down a month ago. Then Ruth Bader Ginsburg died a week later, and Mitch and the rest of the Senate GOP forgot about stimulus until this week.

To review, here's what was in that smaller Senate GOP bill.

The bill carried a price tag of roughly $500 billion and would have provided an additional $300 per week in expanded unemployment insurance benefits for out-of-work Americans. Congress established a benefit providing an additional $600 per week as part of the CARES Act which passed in March, but that provision expired at the end of July. McConnell's bill also included an additional $257 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, which has provided hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to small businesses, liability protections and $105 billion for schools. Liability protection in particular has been a priority for McConnell.

Yes, because what this COVID-wrecked economy needs is liability protection for companies that rush people back to the job (slams head on desk).

But honestly, if I was Chuck Schumer, I'd allow enough Dems to let that mini-stimulus get to the full Senate (which is where you need 60 votes under stupid Senate rules) and then it can pass on a majority vote after that. In fact, why not use the stimulus vote to add amendment upon amendment to improve the package, which delays any votes for SCOTUS by doing so (while making the GOP look all the lamer and power-hungry).

Pelosi doesn't have to pass it anyway, especially when President Trump is desperately tweeting that Congress should "GO BIG OR GO HOME" on stimulus. This would make the Senate GOP would actually be opposing the President whose deplorable voters are needed for the many GOP Senators that are in serious electoral trouble. Pelosi could just change the bill to what just passed, and send it right back to Moscow Mitch and the rest of the Senate. Except it would be even closer to the election.

Hey, if GOPs still want to care more about rigging justice and going light on stimulus in a time when so many people need and demand more, please proceed guys. It'll help Dems win bigger on November 3, and be able to pass whatever level of stimulus they want, which hopefully will be at a level sufficient enough to keep us from falling back into a deep recession during what is shaping up to be a long COVID Winter.