Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicates possibility of $2K checks in other future legislation
FOLLOWING intense back-and-forths among congressional Republicans, Democrats and President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that the proposal from Democrat to approve the $2,000 stimulus checks has “no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate.”
In response to the pressure from fellow members of Congress, the president and the public, McConnell added, “The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats’ rich friends who don’t need the help.”
McConnell’s remark on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Dec. 30 effectively shuts down one of the president’s top priorities as he prepares to leave office in less than a month.
As previously reported in the Asian Journal, Trump has urged McConnell and Senate Republicans to agree to the legislation that would have increased the one-time coronavirus relief payments from $600 to $2,000 that would be directed toward millions of American taxpayers.
But McConnell indicated that Republicans would move to advance a bill that provided $2,000 stimulus checks as long as it was packaged with other stipulations. These conditions include curbing protections for Big Tech companies and kickstarting an investigation into the unfounded claims of election fraud, two other goals of the final days of the Trump presidency.
But Democrats are doubtful that such legislation would pass and condemned McConnell’s refusal to pass existing proposals that would immediately provide the increased stimulus check.
“In blocking it, they are in denial of the hardship the American people are experiencing now, health-wise, financially and every way,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The massive COVID-19 relief bill passed in both chambers of Congress was signed by the president over the weekend, meaning that millions of Americans will receive $600 stimulus checks as early as this week.
The stimulus check is a long-awaited follow up to the first round of $1,200 stimulus checks sent in April and May. Those that are eligible for the stimulus check include individuals who earn up to $75,000 a year and married couples who earn up to $150,000 a year, with an additional $600 for each dependent under the age of 18 who live in the same household.
The bill also extends unemployment benefits promised by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Stability (CARES) Act and provides an additional $300 a week.
McConnell’s widely unpopular decision to refuse the $2,000 stimulus check — which has bipartisan support on the Hill — comes at a time when the Republican-led Senate is facing a possible change in partisan leaning.
It all hinges on two senatorial run-off elections scheduled for January; if both seats go to Democrats, then Democrats take control of the Senate.
