UPDATE: McConnell on Thursday again stopped the Senate from considering the House-passed bill raising the stimulus payments to $2,000.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday once again blocked legislation to send $2,000 payments to most Americans
McConnell, R-Ky., ignored a new plea from President Donald Trump — who tweeted earlier Wednesday, “$2000 ASAP!”— in refusing to allow a vote on the Senate floor. So did U.S. Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., who blocked a second request for a vote. and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who blocked a third request.
The Senate leader said there was “no realistic path” for the $2,000 payments “to quickly pass the Senate.”
“Look, it’s no secret that Republicans have a diversity of views about the wisdom of borrowing hundreds of billions more to send out more non-targeted money,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Our duty is to get help to the people who need help. Like we did to an historic degree just four days ago.”
Both Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made separate requests to allow the Senate to vote on the House-passed bill increasing the stimulus payments to $2,000. The House overwhelmingly approved the legislation following Trump’s demands for the larger checks.
“For once, Democrats agree with something on President Trump’s Twitter feed,” Schumer said.
Trump has called for the higher payments after he signed the coronavirus stimulus package that included $600 payments on Sunday.
Sanders has threatened to block quick consideration of an effort to override Trump’s veto of the defense policy bill, possibly forcing the Senate to spend New Year’s Day in Washington, unless McConnell agrees to allow a vote on the $2,000 stimulus checks.
“It’s about basic democracy,” Sanders said on the Senate floor. “All that Senator Schumer and I are asking of the majority leader is a very simple request: Allow the members of the United States Senate to cast a vote.
“What’s the problem?”
Senate Republicans refused to answer the question, but rather just criticized the proposal.
“They are in denial of the hardship that the American people are experiencing now,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said during her weekly press conference Wednesday. “Health wise, financially, in every way. Their lives and livelihood in many cases are on the brink. So, they’re in denial of that need in denying this benefit.”
Republicans, though, complained that some checks would be going to wealthier Americans or those who didn’t lose any income during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is hardly clear that the federal government’s top priority should be sending thousands of dollars to, for example, a childless couple making well into six figures who have been comfortably teleworking all year,” McConnell said.
The $2,000 checks would begin phasing out at $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for married couples without children.
Because the base is so much higher than it would be with the $600 checks, a family of four, which would start with $8,000 in stimulus checks, would have to make $310,000 before the entire payment would end, according to calculations by the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget. For a family with five children, the cutoff would be $430,000.
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GOP lawmakers in 2017 passed a tax cut that the Congressional Budget Office said would increase the federal deficit by $1.9 trillion over 10 years and independent studies showed gave most of its benefits to corporations and the rich, in part by reducing the estate tax paid only by multimillionaires.
In addition, Senate Republicans made sure that the $2 trillion stimulus law known as the CARES Act included a tax break that the Joint Committee on Taxation said gave 82 percent of its benefits to taxpayers making more than $1 million a year.
In his floor speech, McConnell touted his own legislation that included the $2,000 checks as well as two other issues raised by Trump when he signed the $2.3 trillion legislation that included $900 billion in stimulus funds and $1.4 trillion to fund the government through Sept. 30, 2021.
They were investigating the president’s allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election that have been debunked by dozens of judges and state election officials, and repealing liability protections for social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook for the content posted on their sites. Trump and his conservative allies have complained about the sites flagging or removing content the companies deem false.
“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,” McConnell said.
But the House on Thursday adjourned for the year. A new Congress begins Sunday.
“Any modification or addition to the House bill cannot become law before the end of this Congress. It’s a way to kill — to kill — the bill,” Schumer said. “Make no mistake about it. Either the Senate takes up and passes the House bill, or struggling American families will not get $2,000 checks during the worst economic crisis in 75 years.”
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com or on Twitter @JDSalant.
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