Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids votes against Nancy Pelosi’s big COVID-19 bill, but why?
It’s perfectly true, as Kansas Rep. Sharice David says, that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill has no chance of making it out of Mitch “Should have kept his mouth shut” McConnell’s Senate alive. Not that she would ever put it that way.
But Congresswoman, next time you vote against something you clearly believe in for strictly strategic political reasons, at least come up with a better cover story than that the bill in question is too political.
As The Star’s news story on her Friday vote said, “Davids’ no vote comes as a surprise because the Kansas Democrat has repeatedly called for aid to states and cities facing revenue losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. She participated just this week in a call with other Midwestern Democrats promoting the party’s efforts to pass fiscal relief.’’
So she got what she wanted and was appalled?
Davids’ extreme caution, which after a while starts to read like terror, at this point comes as no surprise, though. Maybe she’s only being practical in deciding not to risk any unhappiness in her swing district over a bill that passed anyway and is really just a starting point for negotiations. Pelosi didn’t need her “amen,” and likely blessed her defection.
But it was this same having-it-all-ways unwillingness to decide who he really was and what he really wanted that made Davids’ predecessor, Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder, so vulnerable to her out-of-nowhere challenge just two years ago.
After her no vote, Davids had mostly nice things to say about the bill, which as she said in a statement “did include some of the much-needed measures I’ve fought for — like funding for state and local governments to pay front-line workers and avoid painful cuts to our public schools, improved small business relief programs with stronger oversight measures, and open enrollment under the ACA so people can get the health coverage they need.”
So the problem was …? Oh, here we go: “But the partisan nature and wide scope of this bill makes it doomed upon arrival in the Senate — only further delaying the aid that Kansans desperately need. Instead we should use these measures as the foundation for a bipartisan relief package that delivers real solutions to the urgent challenges Kansans face in the wake of this public health crisis. That’s what I’ll continue to push for.”
And then vote against again?
If it’s a bill that funds policies you support, a “wide scope” is a positive. It’s partisan in that the only Republican who supported it is New York’s Peter King, who is retiring and so is free to return to his moderate roots. But that those across the aisle don’t like this bill is not a good reason to reject it. If there are deficiencies in the legislation — and yes, there are — then why not spell those out?
This is the constant low-grade fever of disingenuousness that turns so many people off of politics. And it’s these everyday little trims to the truth that allow adversaries to defend even the most pernicious whoppers with the reality that “everybody lies.” What if everybody didn’t?
The criticism from the left is that the bill does nothing to help workers stay employed during this crisis, and that it’s a Republicanish web of tax credits and payoffs to insurance companies. Those are substantive problems with the bill, in a way that saying it’s just too big and just too unsupported by those who never agree with you anyway is not.
The bill would mean $5.2 billion for Kansas over two years and another $5.1 billion to city and county governments in the state. It includes $9.4 billion for Missouri, $75 billion to ramp up coronavirus testing and contact tracing, $75 billion for mortgage relief, $100 billion in assistance for renters, $25 billion for the U.S. Postal Service and $3.6 billion to help people vote during the pandemic.
Davids works hard and wants everyone to get along. There’s nothing not to like about her, and our editorial board endorsed her “thoughtful” and “careful” candidacy two years ago.
But her inclination to say as little as possible is also an epidemic.
The model for the way to win as a Kansas Democrat is to offend no one and hope that no one notices that you’re not a full-fledged Republican. Sometimes I think that the unofficial motto of the state party is “Shhh.”
Maybe that will work for Davids this year, especially with President Donald Trump doing all he can to help his opponents. But if it doesn’t, she’ll have only her lack of confidence in voters to blame.
