WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Closes the Door to President Donald Trump’s $ 2,000 COVID-19 Push relief checks, stating that Congress has provided enough help for the pandemic while blocking another Democratic attempt to force the vote.
The Republican Party leader made it clear Wednesday that he is unwilling to move, despite political pressure from Trump and even some fellow Republican senators demanding action. Trump wants the last $ 600 in aid multiplied by three. But McConnell rejected the idea of larger House-approved “survival checks,” saying the money would go to many American households that simply don’t need it.
McConnell’s refusal to act means the additional relief Trump wanted is virtually dead.
“We just approved nearly $ 1 trillion in aid a few days ago,” McConnell said, referring to the year-end package Trump signed into law.
McConnell added, “if specific and troubled households still need more help,” the Senate will consider “specific and specific aid.” Not another hose of money borrowed.
The confrontation between the outgoing president and his own Republican party over the $ 2,000 checks has turned Congress into a chaotic end-of-year session, just days before the new lawmakers take the oath of office.
It’s a final showdown, along with the replacement of Trump’s veto of a forceful defense bill, which will punctuate the last days of the president and deepen the Republican Party’s divide between its new Trump-style populist wing and what had been the main conservative point of view against the spending of the government.
Trump has been denouncing Republican Party leaders and tweeted, “$ 2,000 POSSIBLE!”
President-elect Joe Biden also supports the payments and wants to take advantage of what he calls a “down payment” in relief.
“In this time of historic crisis and countless economic pain for countless American families, the president-elect supports the $ 2,000-approved direct payments approved by the House,” said Biden transition spokesman Andrew Bates.
The roadblock set by Republicans in the Senate seems insurmountable. Most Republican senators seemed to accept inaction even as a growing number of Republicans, including two senators in the by-elections on Jan. 5, in Georgia, they coincide with Trump’s demand, some wary of sinking him.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the $ 600 checks would begin coming out Wednesday. Congress had agreed to lower payments in a commitment to the large COVID-19 funding law and government funding that Trump reluctantly signed the law. Before signing, however, Trump demanded more.
For the second day in a row, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer tried to force a vote on the House-approved bill by meeting Trump’s demand for $ 2,000 checks.
“What we’re seeing right now is that leader McConnell is trying to kill the checks: the $ 2,000 checks that so many American families desperately need,” Schumer said.
With Georgia’s second Senate election just days away, major Republicans warned that the Republican Party’s refusal to provide more aid as the virus worsens could jeopardize the outcome of those races.
David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler try to defend themselves against Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the election this will determine which party has the majority in the Senate. The two Republicans announced their support for Trump’s call for more generous controls.
“Senate Republicans risk launching two seats and control of the Senate,” Newt Gingrich, the former congressional leader, told Fox News.
McConnell has tried to protect his divided Republicans from a difficult vote. Wednesday suggested he had kept his word to start a “process” to meet Trump’s demands, even if that means no votes will be cast.
“It’s no secret that Republicans have different opinions,” he said.
Earlier, McConnell had introduced a new bill laden with Trump’s other priorities as a possible exit to the exit of the tobacconist. It included $ 2,000 checks more strictly aimed at lower-income families, as well as a complicated revocation. of protections for technology companies like Facebook or Twitter under section 230 of a communications law the president denounced as unfair to conservatives. He also addressed the establishment of a bipartisan commission to review the 2020 presidential election Trump lost to President-elect Joe Biden.
If McConnell votes on his bill, it could revive Trump’s priorities. But because the approach contains additional provisions on technology and elections, Democrats and some Republicans are likely to reaffirm and it is unlikely that there will be enough support in Congress to pass it.
At this time no additional votes have been scheduled on COVID-19 aid. For McConnell, the procedural moves allowed him to tick the box of commitments he made when Trump refused challenging him to sign the big year-end package last weekend. “It was a compromise, and that happened,” he said.
Liberal senators, led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who support the increase in aid, block action on a defense bill until a vote can be taken on Trump’s $ 2,000 demand for the most Americans.
Sanders thundered on the floor that McConnell should call his own voters in his hometown of Kentucky, the Republican Party leader, “and find out how they feel about the need for immediate help in terms of a $ 2,000 check.” .
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marco Rubio of Florida, among the party’s potential presidential aspirants in 2024, also pushed for the president’s leadership. Hawley also leads Trump’s January 6 challenge to get the results from the Electoral College in Congress.
Other Republicans faced larger checks, arguing during a heated debate in the Senate that the price of about $ 400 billion was too high, that the relief was not aimed at those who need it, and Washington has already sent large amounts of money. help COVID-19.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Has tweeted that “blindly borrowing” billions “so we can send $ 2,000 checks to millions who have lost no income is a terrible policy.” .
Considered a long run, Trump’s demand gained momentum earlier in the week when dozens of House Republicans figured it was better to relate to most Democrats than to challenge the outgoing president. They helped pass a bill that increased payments with a robust two-thirds approval vote.
As Trump’s push soars, his attempt to modify the year-end package: $ 900 billion in COVID-19 aid and $ 1.4 trillion to fund the government agencies until September: will potentially remain as the last showdown before the new Congress is sworn in on Sunday.
Part of the COVID-19 bill revives a weekly increase in pandemic unemployment compensation (this time $ 300 through March 14), as well as the popular Business Payroll Protection Program to keep workers in payroll. It expands protection against evictions and adds a new rent assistance fund.
Americans earning up to $ 75,000 will qualify for direct payments of $ 600, which are gradually eliminated at higher income levels, and there is an additional payment of $ 600 per dependent child.
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Associated Press writer Ashraf Khalil in Washington contributed to this report.