The Republicans are trying to spin everything. Now they’re trying to claim the tepid relief bill that made it out the door recently is all their doing, and the Democrats only agreed to prop up the incoming Democratic president-elect.
As Congress passed a new $900 billion economic rescue package on Monday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered a choice bit of spin on how we got to this moment:
“A few days ago, with a new president-elect of their own party, everything changed,” Mr. McConnell said on Monday. “Democrats suddenly came around to our position that we should find consensus, make law where we agree, and get urgent help out the door.”
Getting the story right here is highly consequential. It will shape the arguments that determine the outcome of the Georgia runoffs — and control of the Senate — and should leave little doubt that continued GOP control means McConnell will strive to sabotage the recovery to cripple Joe Biden’s presidency.
This is what McConnell wants to obscure. Because as he has privately admitted, the failure of Congress to deliver a robust aid package to people is putting his Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R) and David Perdue (R) at risk.
So McConnell wants voters — especially those in Georgia — to believe Republicans supported generous aid all along, particularly the stimulus checks in the new deal, and that Democrats refused to act, to harm President Trump’s reelection campaign.
It’s an astonishing bit of political theater. He opposed any relief bill, fought against any proposals for months and months, and only now when when he’s trying to provide good news for Republicans in Georgia does he come around.
McConnell even acknowledged that a vote would disrupt plans to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, and refused to commit to a vote before Election Day. That wrecks the story McConnell is telling: He opposed a vote before the election, despite his revisionism that Pelosi did not want compromise to hurt Trump.
It’s projection all around. He accuses Democrats of obstructing relief efforts; it was the Republicans all along. He accuses Democrats of only coming around when they saw political gain for their party; the truth is he’s only supporting it because Loeffler (who opposed all relief!) and Perdue need the help.
If you think Pelosi wasn’t playing the same games because of the election, then (at best) you haven’t been paying attention.
A “robust aid package” and “generous aid”? Farcical. It’s more like we were fucking robbed, but we’re being told that we should be grateful that they happened to drop some of the loose change during their escape.
I don’t mind that McConnell wants his name attached to a bill that only gives American people $600 of relief, which (assuming every American got it, which isn’t the case because it doesn’t apply to anyone whose household made more than a certain amount in 2019) only amounts to around 192billion of the 900billion, while the single biggest chunk of that 900bil is reserved for big businesses and corporations. I would like to see progressives (few as they may be at the national level) out there hammering home the reality that McConnell only thinks Americans are worth $600 while the Democratic party (as flawed as they are) was fighting for Americans to get more..
According to the NYT Biden apparently pushed for a smaller bill than the Democratic leadership wanted to “compromise” with the Republicans.
Reagan and republicans did that for MLK, Jr. Day – opposed it all the way, then took credit for it.
Don’t forget the NY Time’s complicity with McConnell. McConnell is the only person quoted in the the article and there is no mention of the reality, acknowledged by McConnell in leaked conversations, that he agreed to negotiate only because the Republican Senate candidates were suffering in the polls because of the lack of a deal. The New York Times, as always hippie punching in terror of being labelled left-wing, is following its policy of compensating for its center-left editorial positions with right-wing editorializing disguised as news articles.
Or do they hippie-kick because they sincerely do not like hippies?
I get a lot of news from the NYT, but this is after all a paper that carries Ross Douthat, Bret Stephens, and David Brooks.
And now… Trump is threatening to veto the bill unless they give $2000 to each person and remove “wasteful” spending from it. (Haven’t seen what he considers “wasteful”, but I could guess that it’s anything for small businesses or schools.)
whheydt@7 While I agree with having more stimulus, I suspect this is a desperate “populist” move on Trump’s part to leverage into another clumsy coup attempt. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/22/trump-calls-covid-relief-bill-unsuitable-and-demands-congress-add-higher-stimulus-payments.html says he did not threaten a veto, and it passed by a veto-proof majority anyway.
That bill has so much shit in it it’s hardly a spending bill anymore. What does the US stance on the choosing of the new Dalai Lama have to do with Covid relief?! Or making illegal streaming a felony? Or revising the property status of certain race horses? Or foreign policy in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan? It’s like everyone just tossed their personal hobbyhorses onto the pile to slide them through with no oversight. Since no one had time to read it all, most of Congress has no idea what’s been stuffed in there.
So if America is a plane, and Covid-19 is the engines on fire… then it makes perfect sense to punch out the lady sitting next to you who is trying to put an oxygen mask on her kid and steal all of their oxygen as well. /s
@10 Opps wrong story.
It has been my rule of thumb for some time that if you want to know what politicians are doing, it’s what they are accusing their opponents of doing.