dagblog - Comments for "As Coronavirus Spread, Largest Stimulus in History United a Polarized Senate"

Interesting to see how

artappraiser — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 23:42:22 +0000

In reply to As Coronavirus Spread, Largest Stimulus in History United a Polarized Senate

Interesting to see how Breitbart's Charlie Spiering spun it (this is most of it so you don't have to click):

Top Six Awful Democrat Ideas Senate Republicans Blocked from Coronavirus Bill

[....]

“We weren’t going to give in to their demands,” a senior Republican leadership aide told Breitbart News. “This was not the time or the place, this was an emergency.”

Although Republicans ultimately allowed $75 million for public television and radio, $150 million for the Arts and Humanities, and $25 million for the Kennedy Center, several Democrat proposals were blocked.

Here are the top six items that Senate Republicans kept out of the bill, despite political pressure from the Democrats:

Money for Planned Parenthood: Senate Democrats wanted to bail out the abortion industry by allowing rescue funds for Planned Parenthood, one of their biggest non-profit allies. But Senate Republicans included language in the bill that ensured Planned Parenthood and other non-profits were not eligible. Democrats fought hard to remove the language but were met with a hard no. The bill also included language from the Hyde Amendment, ensuring that taxpayer funds would not directly pay for abortions.

Green New Deal: Senate Democrats felt that the emergency spending bill was an opportunity to slip in tax breaks to benefit wind and solar energy. Senate Republicans refused, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hoisted their efforts to shoehorn green agenda interests as proof that Democrats were not serious about helping the country, as they voted to block the legislation.

No Strings Funding for States: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to make sure that the billions of dollars sent to states could be used to fill holes in their budgets, especially in blue states that were already in debt. Senate Republicans, however, made sure that the emergency funding granted to states be used for coronavirus-related expenses. The rule vexed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and other governors who wanted billions more funding with no strings attached.

Federal Mandates for Early and Mail Voting: Congressional Democrats believed they could use the coronavirus crisis to create new federal mandates to override state election laws, forcing every state to develop early voting and elections through mail. Funding was ultimately sent to state election officials, but only for ways to protect voters from coronavirus.

Postal Service Bailout: Democrats believed that the coronavirus crisis could be used to rescue the postal service, which continues to suffer massive deficits. Democrats wanted $20 billion in funding with no strings attached, but Senate Republicans replaced it with a loan that required them to spend it on the effects of the coronavirus.

DHS Funding Restrictions: The bill includes transfer authorities that allows $289 million to be transferred to the Department of Homeland Security, but Democrats wanted some strings attached to the funding regarding ICE and immigration enforcement. The effort failed.

Ultimately, Senate Democrats successfully achieved big increases in unemployment insurance payments, something that even drew protests from select Senate Republicans. But Republicans expressed satisfaction that the president and McConnell retained the proposal to send direct checks to the American people, which was something that many Democrats opposed.

“If Chuck Schumer had his way, he would have eliminated the direct checks,” one Senate Republican aide told Breitbart News.

Uppity president, clearly

artappraiser — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 23:00:02 +0000

In reply to As Coronavirus Spread, Largest Stimulus in History United a Polarized Senate

Uppity president, clearly someone put a bug in his ear that he should do this, hopefully many will draw attention:

JUST IN: Trump signing statement on coronavirus bill says he’ll override a provision requiring the newly created inspector general to report to Congress any time agencies refuse to give him/her requested info. pic.twitter.com/XhbYKMGaGq
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 27, 2020

Unity

rmrd0000 — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 12:40:52 +0000

In reply to As Coronavirus Spread, Largest Stimulus in History United a Polarized Senate

Unity

But there was a final bit of drama as staff put the finishing touches on the 880-page bill. A group of Republican senators including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ben Sasse of Nebraska objected to granting workers the extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits, arguing that it would encourage layoffs and discourage workers whose wages would be lower than the aid level from seeking jobs.

“They are very upset that somebody who is making 10, 12 bucks an hour might end up with a paycheck for four months that is more than they received last week — Oh, my God, the universe is collapsing,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont and a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. He also said that the bill was too slanted to big corporations, but that it was worthy of support.

A bid by Mr. Sasse to remove the extra jobless aid was defeated, though widely supported by Republicans. He summed up the sentiment of many in his party when he said of Mr. Sanders: “I appreciate his candor in admitting that this is kind of a big crap sandwich.”

In the end, however, no senator wanted to reject it. Every one of them voted “yes.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/us/coronavirus-senate-stimulus-package.html

Each side fought for its priorities