McConnell blocks stimulus checks from going through

Update:

Senator Mitch McConnell blocked blocked unanimous passage needed for the $2,000 coronavirus stimulus checks to proceed.

Trump tweeted in response to the the move:

“Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $2000 payments ASAP. $600 IS NOT ENOUGH! Also, get rid of Section 230 – Don’t let Big Tech steal our Country, and don’t let the Democrats steal the Presidential Election. Get tough!”

Since McConnell has blocked the passage, it’s not clear what the next step would be for bringing the $2,000 stimulus payments up for a vote.

While speaking on the Senate floor today, McConnell outlined three priorities Trump said he wanted Congress to address: Larger stimulus checks, Section 230 legal liability protections, and election fraud.

McConnell said that “this week, the Senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus.”

But nobody really knows what this means with respect to the possibility of bigger stimulus checks.

It does seem like there will be another opportunity to vote but it may involve a complicated set of circumstances with delaying other votes.

Basically, some senators are saying that if the Senate does not agree to take a full vote on the measure, they will do what they have to do to push things out.

So while this news was not positive or even surprising, it seems that there is still opportunity to pass bigger stimulus checks this week.

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Original article:

Today is a huge day for stimulus checks.

As many of you know, yesterday the House passed the bill that would increase stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000 in a bipartisan 275-134 vote.

And today, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will attempt to pass that same legislation in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Yesterday, he commented on his goal for today:

“Tomorrow I will move to pass the legislation in the Senate to quickly deliver Americans with $2,000 emergency checks. Every Senate Democrat is for this much-needed increase in emergency financial relief, which can be approved tomorrow if no Republican blocks it – there is no good reason for Senate Republicans to stand in the way,” Schumer said.

“There’s strong support for these $2,000 emergency checks from every corner of the country — Leader McConnell ought to make sure Senate Republicans do not stand in the way of helping to meet the needs of American workers and families who are crying out for help,” he added.

The big problem is that under the Senate rules any one senator can block a request to pass or vote on a bill.

No Republican has come out and said they would block this attempt but Senator Ron Johnson already blocked two previous attempts to pass the second round of $1,200 stimulus checks so many people expect him to once again block the effort.

There may have been negotiations with President Trump and other senators that could prevent this from happening, however.

I saw reports that a condition for Trump signing the stimulus bill was that the proposal would be guaranteed to go to the floor for voting.

If that is true then perhaps we will not see a senator block the effort but it is unclear to me at this point if that agreement actually took place.

Some key Republicans have come out in support of increased stimulus checks. These include senators like Lindsey Graham and more recently Marco Rubio who stated:

“I share many of my colleagues’ concern about the long-term effects of additional spending, but we cannot ignore the fact that millions of working class families across the nation are still in dire need of relief,” Rubio said.

“Congress should quickly pass legislation to increase direct payments to Americans to $2,000.”

So while I still expect the bill to not pass the Senate with the 2/3 majority required, it does look like the the odds of it happening have increased based on recent support that has gained some momentum.

I don’t think it is quite the Hail Mary that it was a few weeks ago.

H/T

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