‘The Enemy of The People,’ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Holds The Fate Of The CASH Act Today

In somewhat of a surprise, enough House Republicans voted with Democrats to clear the two-thirds vote requirement for the CASH Act, to increase the COVID relief payment from a measly $600 to $2,000 per person. No doubt they convinced themselves that because their “Dear Leader” threw a temper tantrum over Christmas for a $2,000 payment, this gave them cover to vote for something they did not support all year after Democrats first proposed it.  The vote was 275-134.

Arizona’s Congressional delegation broke along party lines, with Republicans defying their president to stiff Arizonans of much needed economic relief. Yeah: Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, O’Halleran, Stanton Nay: Biggs, Gosar, Lesko, Schweikert.

Congressmen Biggs, Gosar and Schweikert previously voted against the COVID relief bill, signed by President Trump, giving Americans a measly $600 cash payment.

There ought to be a sanction for the voters who keep reelecting these assholes to Congress. If your member of Congress voted against providing COVID relief, residents of that congressional district should not receive any relief as a sanction and an incentive to oust these assholes in the next election. Yes it is unfair to those residents who voted against them, but this will incentivize them to turn out in the next election to exact their retribution by voting them out of office. There has to be consequences for these votes, and the voters who keep reelecting these assholes to Congress.

The New York Times reports, The House voted to advance $2,000 stimulus checks demanded by Trump.

The House voted on Monday evening to increase the size of individual stimulus checks to $2,000 from $600, endorsing a measure demanded by President Trump and daring Senate Republicans to either approve the heftier sum or defy the president, whose demands for bigger checks nearly scuttled the entire stimulus package.

The vote, which just reached the two-thirds majority needed to pass the House, came a day after Mr. Trump finally signed off on a $900 billion pandemic relief package he initially denounced as a “disgrace” and refused to sign, unexpectedly demanding that lawmakers more than triple the direct payments.

“The president of the United States has put this forth as something that he wants to see and part of his signing the legislation yesterday,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said. “I hope that view will be shared by the Republicans in the Senate, because we will pass this bill today.”

The AP reports the Fate of Trump’s $2,000 checks now rests with GOP-led Senate today:

President Donald Trump’s push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks now rests with the Senate after the House voted overwhelmingly to meet the president’s demand to increase the $600 stipends, but Republicans have shown little interest in boosting spending.

Most House Republicans simply shrugged off Trump’s demand, 130 of them voting to reject the higher checks that would pile $467 billion in additional costs. Another 20 House Republicans — including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, a Trump confidant — skipped the vote, despite pandemic procedures that allow lawmakers to vote by proxy to avoid travel to the Capitol. McCarthy was recovering at home from elbow surgery, his office said.

The outcome is highly uncertain heading into Tuesday’s session. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declined to publicly address how he plans to handle the issue. But Democrats, sharing a rare priority with Trump, have seized on the opportunity to force Republicans into a difficult vote of either backing or defying the outgoing president.

After bipartisan approval by the House, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned, “There is no good reason for Senate Republicans to stand in the way.”

“There’s strong support for these $2,000 emergency checks from every corner of the country,” Schumer said in a statement late Monday. He called on McConnell to make sure the Senate helps “meet the needs of American workers and families who are crying out for help.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) vowed to push the GOP-controlled Senate to vote on the move as well. Bernie Sanders vows to hold up defense bill unless Senate votes on $2,000 stimulus checks:

His leverage?

A threat to force senators to cancel their holiday travels by throwing a wrench into Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plans for a quick vote this week on an override of President Trump’s defense bill veto.

“Let me be clear: If Sen. McConnell doesn’t agree to an up or down vote to provide the working people of our country a $2,000 direct payment, Congress will not be going home for New Year’s Eve,” Sanders said in a statement.

The House tally was a stunning turn of events. Just days ago Republicans blocked Trump’s sudden demands for bigger checks during a brief Christmas Eve session as he defiantly refused to sign the broader COVID-19 aid and year-end funding bill into law.

As Trump spent days fuming from his private club in Florida, where he is spending the holidays, dozens of Republicans calculated it was better to link with Democrats to increase the pandemic stipend rather than buck the outgoing president and constituents counting on the money. Democrats led passage, 275-134, but 44 Republicans joined almost all Democrats in approval.

Senators were set to return to session Tuesday amid similar, stark GOP divisions between those who align with Trump’s populist instincts and others who adhere to what had been more traditional conservative views against government spending. Congress had settled on smaller $600 payments in a compromise over the big year-end relief bill Trump reluctantly signed into law.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared, “Republicans have a choice: Vote for this legislation or vote to deny the American people the bigger paychecks they need.”

The showdown could end up as more symbol than substance if Trump’s effort fizzles out in the Senate.

The legislative action during the rare holiday week session may do little to change the $2 trillion-plus COVID-19 relief and federal spending package Trump signed into law Sunday, one of the biggest bills of its kind providing relief for millions of Americans.

That package — $900 billion in COVID-19 aid and $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies — will deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and avert a federal government shutdown that otherwise would have started Tuesday, in the midst of the public health crisis.

But the outcome will define Trump’s GOP, putting a spotlight on the Georgia runoff election Jan. 5 where two Republican senators are in the fights of their political lives against Democrats in a pair of races that will determine which party controls the Senate next year.

Together with votes Monday and Tuesday to override Trump’s veto of a sweeping defense bill, it’s potentially one last confrontation between the president and the Republican Party he leads as he imposes fresh demands and disputes the results of the presidential election. The new Congress is set to be sworn in Sunday.

Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, acknowledged the division and said Congress had already approved ample funds during the COVID-19 crisis. “Nothing in this bill helps anybody get back to work,” he said.

Aside from the direct $600 checks to most Americans, the COVID-19 portion of the bill revives a weekly pandemic jobless benefit boost — this time $300, through March 14 — as well as a popular Paycheck Protection Program of grants to businesses to keep workers on payrolls. It extends eviction protections, adding a new rental assistance fund.

The COVID-19 package draws and expands on an earlier effort from Washington. It offers billions of dollars for vaccine purchases and distribution, for virus contact tracing, public health departments, schools, universities, farmers, food pantry programs and other institutions and groups facing hardship in the pandemic.

Americans earning up to $75,000 will qualify for the direct $600 payments, which are phased out at higher income levels, and there’s an additional $600 payment per dependent child.

Meantime the government funding portion of the bill keeps federal agencies nationwide running without dramatic changes until Sept. 30.

President-elect Joe Biden told reporters at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, that he supported the $2,000 checks.

“The Enemy of The People,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his minions in the U.S. Senate holds the fate of the CASH Act today, and you receiving $2,000 in COVID economic relief.