Sen. Josh Hawley, Trump, Democrats want $2,000 stimulus checks. Will GOP nix COVID aid?
Memo to congressional Republicans: Even the Grinch saw the light. Will you?
After the initial urging of Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, and some after-the-fact prompting by President Donald Trump, Congress Monday began rethinking its paltry $600 per person COVID-19 relief payments — which come much too little and far too late to help Americans struggling to survive the pandemic. President-elect Joe Biden supports proposals to raise the amount to $2,000 a person as well.
Yet, even as the House approved the $2,000 payments by a two-thirds majority Monday, many Republicans remain reluctant or flat-out opposed to the enhanced emergency aid, even after the first stimulus checks of nearly nine months ago have long since been depleted.
Why? Is it a fear of further deficit spending? The concern could be considered legitimate in other circumstances, but this is no less an emergency than in the Great Depression or in world war, when even the most conservative among us can surely justify deficit spending. We’re talking about millions of Americans being unable to pay for housing or food, while many businesses have been asked or forced to severely limit operations. And after months and months of inaction by Congress.
Pray tell, what exactly constitutes an emergency in Republican minds on Capitol Hill?
The conservative Hawley’s original proposal, made with liberal Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was for a $1,200-per-person stimulus, the same amount that was included in the April relief package. That seemed reasonable to most. But for some inexplicable reason Congress — and President Trump’s own negotiator, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin — went low, with a $600 stimulus.
The backlash was fierce and relentless, and appears to have led Trump to reluctantly sign the omnibus bill containing $900 billion in coronavirus relief — but to also ask Congress to up the stimulus amount to $2,000. The president was notably absent when the relief bill was being hammered out and now comes awfully late to this debate, but he is right that $600 simply is not enough for the millions of Americans in financial distress.
Democrats, who have long supported larger stimulus payments, now see both the financial need and a political opening, and they have pounced on the idea to give Americans larger checks. “Today I’m voting to provide $2,000 payments to hardworking families who desperately need help,” U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat from Kansas, tweeted Monday. “These payments now have bipartisan support & it’s time for action in a national crisis.”
But Republicans didn’t appear as eager, and in fact, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was slow to even comment on the idea.
This, despite the fact that much of the backlash against the $600 stimulus came from conservatives.
On Sunday, Hawley tweeted his enthusiasm for a new vote: “@realDonaldTrump tonight says Senate leadership has promised votes on bills to increase the #covid relief payments to $2000 for working people ... Let’s vote!”
The populist push for desperately needed relief for beleaguered Americans — notably championed by Republicans Hawley and Trump — has painted McConnell and his GOP colleagues in a corner. Either they give in and agree to the higher aid amount, or they stand in the way and play the coldhearted villain.
Trust us: The Republicans’ tight spot is infinitely less tight than that of their suffering constituents wondering where their next meal or rent payment is coming from.
Hawley should be commended for reaching across the aisle and for listening to Americans’ howls of anger over the pittance prescribed in the just-passed COVID-19 relief bill. But getting a hopelessly overdue vote on a higher stimulus payment isn’t enough. It also needs to pass. Lives and livelihoods are depending on it.
Is there a more devastating emergency to wait on?