Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, doubled Friday on his opposition to $ 2,000 stimulus checks, and Republicans last tried to approve the improved coronavirus relief.
McConnell dismissed the $ 2,000 checks as a “universal cash gift” and not the right approach to relieve those in need.
“A big piece will essentially be socialism for rich people,” McConnell said during a speech on New Year’s Day.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Endorses the idea that Republicans are now concerned about ‘socialism for rich people’ when he says they’re fine with big corporate tax cuts. For extra effect, he brought poster size checks to the Senate floor showing the millions of tax rebates received by companies like Amazon, Chevron and Delta Airlines.
“This is what socialism for the rich is all about,” Sanders said of the company’s gifts. “Socialism for the rich does not – in the midst of this terrible pandemic – place a $ 2000 check in the hands of working families.”
“I see, if I may say so, a little hypocrisy here,” Sanders added.
Sanders, with the support of Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., On Friday tried to get a vote on the $ 2,000 checks legislation. He also asked for a vote on a plan backed by McConnell, which links the $ 2,000 checks to election security measures and the restriction of Big Tech – two other priorities of President Trump.
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But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, objected to the request for the votes, on behalf of an absent Senator Pat Toomey, R-Penn., Which effectively destroyed the chance for $ 2,000 Senate checks.
There is little time for a vote since the current Congress ends on Sunday. Any pending legislation will die and must be reinstated in the new session.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., spoke in a speech on Friday on the urgency of the matter before Republicans rejected his separate request to vote.
“If the Senate does not act today, $ 2,000 checks will not become law before the end of Congress and they will know that leader McConnell and the Republican majority prevented them from getting the checks – simple and straightforward,” said Schumer. “This is the last chance.”
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Senator John Thune, RS.D., objected to Schumer’s request to cast a vote on the $ 2,000 checks, arguing that sending checks to families who make six-figures and who do not by the pandemic affected is not ‘fiscally responsible’.
“It is not the goal to help those who are most in need,” Thune said.
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Congress has already passed $ 600 checks as part of a broader $ 900 billion aid package. These checks are currently being distributed. While Trump signed the dual legislation, he also demanded larger checks of $ 2,000. The House agreed by passing independent legislation and sending it to the Senate, where it was blocked.
Hawley expressed frustration that a measure that would pass the Senate could not even get a vote.
“It looks like it’s the Senate against the United States,” Hawley said.