After Republicans lost control of the Senate this week, President-elect Joe Biden renewed his call for $ 2,000 stimulus checks on Friday. However, at least one Democrat is against the idea.
Democrats secured control of the upper house by winning both of Georgia’s Senate elections, paving the way for the party to deliver the $ 2,000 direct payments its leaders had promised in recent weeks. With control of both congress chambers, Biden on Friday demanded that the larger checks be included in the next coronavirus stimulation measure.
“We need more immediate relief for families and small businesses, including the completion of work and the promotion of $ 2,000,” he said in Delaware. “Six hundred dollars is simply not enough if you have to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table and keeping the lights on.”
With newly elected Georgian senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Democrats will have 50 seats in the upper chamber, and Kamala Harris, vice president, now has the casting vote.
To ensure that the thicker controls are passed, the Senate Democrats may have to circumvent the GOP filibuster by obtaining a simple majority of 51 votes. But at least one Democratic senator has strongly opposed $ 2,000 stimulus checks.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty
In a Friday interview with The Washington PostSaid Joe Manchin of West Virginia: “Absolutely not” at $ 2,000 direct payments, emphasizing that “the fact that people are vaccinated is job number one.”
“How is the money we are investing now going to best help us find jobs and employ people? And I can not tell you that sending another check would do that to someone who already has a check. not, “he said. said.
In a later tweet, Manchin said the next round of stimulus tests “should be aimed at those who need it.”
If Manchin opposes the $ 2,000 checks, incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will have to find at least one Republican senator to pass the measure. Several Republicans, including Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have already sharply increased the increase in pass checks from $ 600 to $ 2,000.
Newsweek Biden’s transition team for comment.
President Donald Trump has insisted on fattening the second check to $ 2,000 before signing the latest coronavirus relief bill late last year. A measure to advance the payments was passed by the House, but outgoing Senate leader Mitch McConnell blocked an independent vote.
Schumer will soon be the legislature deciding on the bills that reach the floor of the Senate. After the elections in Georgia, the top Democrat said it was’ one of the first things I want to do to allow a vote on the checks.
Biden pleaded guilty to Georgians promising to hand over $ 2,000 checks if the Democrats controlled all three branches of government.
“Georgia, there is no one in America with more power to make this happen than you, the citizens of Atlanta, the citizens of Georgia, and that is not an exaggeration. It is literally true,” he said. “If you send Jon and the pastor to Washington, the $ 2,000 checks will go out the door and restore hope and decency and honor to so many people who are currently struggling.”
Both Warnock and Ossoff also campaigned for the promise to deliver $ 2,000 stimulus checks to Americans.