McConnell combines $2,000 stimulus checks with other Trump demands. What happens next?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced legislation that combines larger stimulus checks with President Donald Trump’s other demands, including a rollback on online liability protections and a commission on election fraud.
McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, introduced a bill Tuesday afternoon that pairs a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — which provides legal protections for online platforms — and a commission to investigate voter fraud with $2,000 stimulus checks. They are all priorities that Trump said he wants Congress to address after he signed the coronavirus relief deal into law on Sunday.
The new legislation poses a problem for Democrats, who would have to approve the election fraud commission and repeal of Section 230 if they want larger stimulus checks. The bill would allow Republicans to address Trump’s concerns and vote for larger checks in a proposal that’s unlikely to become law.
The legislation will also likely face opposition from fiscally conservative Republicans who object to increased direct payments.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, blasted McConnell’s new proposal in a statement Tuesday.
“Senator McConnell knows how to make $2,000 survival checks reality and he knows how to kill them,” Schumer said. “If Sen. McConnell tries loading up the bipartisan House-passed CASH Act with unrelated, partisan provisions that will do absolutely nothing to help struggling families across the country, it will not pass the House and cannot become law — any move like this by Sen. McConnell would be a blatant attempt to deprive Americans of a $2,000 survival check.”
McConnell said Wednesday afternoon that the Senate will only consider “smart targeted aid, not another fire hose of borrowed money that encompasses other people who are doing just fine,” Politico reported. “The Senate is not going to split apart the three issues that President Trump linked together just because Democrats are afraid to address two of them.”
Schumer rejected McConnell’s proposal, saying “there is no other game in town than the House bill,” according to a CNN reporter. “At the very least the Senate deserves the opportunity for an up or down vote” on the House legislation.
McConnell blocked Democrats’ initial attempt to pass the proposal for larger checks in a standalone measure in the Senate on Tuesday.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Monday that would boost direct payments in the COVID aid package from $600 to $2,000. The CASH Act was approved by a 275-134 vote, narrowly passing the two-thirds threshold the House needed to advance the measure, with all but two Democrats voting for the bill and 44 Republicans also backing the proposal.
Schumer tried to bring the CASH Act to the Senate for a vote on Tuesday, but McConnell objected when Schumer asked for unanimous consent for larger payments. Only one senator needed to oppose the bill in order for it to fail using this quick method.
Boosting the stimulus checks to $2,000 would cost around $464 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Senate Republicans, led by McConnell, have previously tried to keep COVID aid legislation under $1 trillion.
After McConnell blocked Senate Democrats from passing the bill, Trump urged Republicans to approve the $2,000 payments unless they “have a death wish.”
“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!” he tweeted.
The $900 billion coronavirus package, passed by Congress last week, came about nine months after the first stimulus deal was reached — following numerous delays and negotiations among congressional leaders and the White House about what the legislation should contain.
The aid package currently includes $600 direct payments for millions of Americans making up to $75,000 a year but is less generous than the $2 trillion CARES Act, which provided $1,200 payments for individuals who met that same income threshold.
In a video posted to Twitter on Dec. 22, Trump demanded Congress increase the “ridiculously low” $600 direct payments included in the most recent bill to $2,000 per person or $4,000 per couple and called other provisions in the legislation “wasteful spending and much more.”
Trump doubled down on his criticism on Saturday, tweeting: “I simply want to get our great people $2000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill.” He ultimately signed the bill on Sunday.
A growing number of GOP senators have backed Trump’s demand for larger stimulus checks, including Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the two Georgia Republicans running in the Jan. 5 runoff elections. The runoffs will determine whether Democrats or Republicans win control of the Senate.
Loeffler and Perdue both said Tuesday that they back Trump’s push for larger checks. Their Democratic opponents, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, have said they also support increased stimulus payments.
“I’ve stood by the president 100% of the time. I’m proud to do that and I’ve said, absolutely, we need to get relief to Americans now and I will support that,” Loeffler said in a Fox News interview.
Perdue tweeted Tuesday: “President Donald Trump is right — I support this push for $2,000 in direct relief for the American people.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 7:38 AM with the headline "McConnell combines $2,000 stimulus checks with other Trump demands. What happens next?."