Mitch McConnell faces decision to increase incentive payments to $ 2,000

Mitch McConnell faces decision to increase incentive payments to $ 2,000

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After the House overwhelmingly voted to override both President Donald Trump’s veto on the National Defense Act and pass $ 2,000 stimulus investigations, it’s the Senate’s Republicans’ turn to navigate whether they are willing to overthrow Trump. to sting in his last days in office.

Watch McConnell as he opens the Senate floor. The majority leader in particular made no public promises about how he intends to handle $ 2,000 checks, despite Trump insisting he would get a promise that the process would begin in the U.S. Senate. McConnell’s remarks Tuesday may make it clear in which direction Republicans of the Senate are heading.

Bottom line: If McConnell intends to announce the bill for formal voting, it could take several more days before the vote takes place given the procedural obstacles.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday will seek unanimous approval to increase the measure, which raises direct payments to $ 2,000. This is unlikely to succeed because any senator can object (Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin objected a few days ago to more money for stimulus checks).

The dynamic

Remember that for months one of the biggest bottlenecks in the stimulus negotiations was how much the package would cost. Republicans did not want to spend more than $ 1 trillion. Some Republicans did not want to spend more than $ 500 billion. The recently signed Covid legal aid bill costs about $ 900 billion.
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McConnell knows that adding $ 2,000 checks to this account will cost hundreds of billions more. For this to succeed, McConnell needs 12 Republicans to sign up and it is not clear at this time that many exist. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, said he would repay the payments. And Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, was a strong supporter of stimulus tests. But a vote on the issue will undoubtedly split the Republican conference and force George Sens Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to take a hard vote just days before their run-off election. It will also expose members who vote no to the anger of a president who was never approved to be crossed over.

That does not mean that McConnell is not heading in that direction. A vote for $ 2,000 checks can also boost Perdue and Loeffler in their races if they vote for it. The provision is popular. And even if the measure did not succeed, it would be shown to the president if McConnell tried it, but the votes were just not. McConnell, as usual, sought the input of his members.

It’s also possible, and some Democratic assistants CNN spoke to fear that McConnell could tie a vote on $ 2,000 checks to a less popular provision that makes it harder for Democrats to vote. Recall that Trump argued that he had been assured that the Senate would also repeal Article 230, which protects web businesses from liability for what third-party users place on their sites. This will confuse party lines and make a vote on $ 2,000 checks much harder for Democrats to swallow.

NDAA

McConnell was hoping to raise NDAA dominance on Wednesday. Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has said he will stop the measure unless McConnell raises $ 2,000 checks.

Again, we do not yet know what McConnell’s plans for checks are, but if he does not make a promise to bring them to the floor, Sanders could force McConnell to run the watch until New Year’s Day on the NDAA veto. . . Sources expect the votes will be there to dominate the NDAA in the Senate. It’s just a matter of when. A delay could keep Loeffler and Perdue out of the campaign, just days before their expiration.

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