GOP senators meltdown after Democrats roll over them and pass the COVID aid bill - Raw Story - Celebrating 16 Years of Independent Journalism
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • 3 years ago • 33 commentsBy: Raw Story - Celebrating Years of Independent Journalism
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaking at CPAC 2011 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Republican senators on Saturday voiced their dismay that Democrats passed coronavirus relief without letting the GOP water it down to make Joe Biden's re-election less likely.
Learning from the mistakes from the Obama administration, the Biden administration focused on the policy outcomes of the legislation instead of focusing on the optics of attempting bipartisanship.
"The Senate approved a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan on Saturday, as Democrats muscled through a marathon debate — and overcame dissent from moderateswithin their own ranks — to move one step closer to delivering President Biden his first legislative victory. Democrats voted to adopt the bill without any Republican support after a more than 24-hour, around-the-clock session," The Washington Post reported Saturday. "It will now fall to the House to consider the sweeping package once again before it can become law and any of the aid can be dispersed."
"The Senate's passage of the measure marked an early win for Biden and his congressional Democratic allies, who had promised in the wake of the 2020 presidential election to authorize a robust package of new coronavirus aid -- including another round of one-time checks for families -- as one of their first acts," the newspaper explained. "The relief measure includes a new round of up-to $1,400 stimulus checks for millions of Americans, $350 billion for cash-strapped cities and states, $130 billion for schools, and other sizable sums for a wide array of programs including food assistance, rental relief and coronavirus vaccine distribution. The bill also authorizes an additional $300-per-week in unemployment payments until early September, trimming the amount that House Democrats initially had approved earlier in the month."
Upon passage, Republicans issued statements complaining about the vote that will allow Democrats to take all the credit for the legislation. Many Republicans complained about the bill lacking GOP support, even though the package has the support of the majority of Republican voters.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) complained that the bill was not passed "honestly" because it did not allow a minority of Republicans to block the legislation.
McConnell argued, "Democrats decided their top priority wasn't pandemic relief. It was their Washington wish-list. It was jamming through unrelated policy changes they couldn't pass honestly."
Sen. Rob Portman complained that "neither the president nor congressional Democrats took any of our ideas on how to tailor it to those most in need. As a result, not a single Republican voted for the partisan bill in the House or Senate."
"With Democrats rushing this horribly flawed bill through Congress using a process designed to ensure they do not need any input from Republicans, it is clear whatever President Biden meant when he promised unity, he has failed miserably," Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said. "When this proposed legislation came before the Senate, Republicans used the tools at their disposal to push back, offering a series of amendments to hold Democrats accountable and expose their extreme agenda."
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) also criticized Democrats for not watering-down the bill.
"Republican, in good faith, sought to negotiate a compromise bill that would have targeted COVID assistance to those who really need it," Romney claimed.
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) complained, "This is the first COVID bill to be entirely partisan because it isn't designed to help end the pandemic - it's a blatant attempt from Dems to jam through a partisan wish list."
Senate Republicans even put out a video complaining that Republicans were basically irrelevant in the passing of coronavirus relief.
BREAKING: Democrats just rammed their "American Rescue Plan" through the Senate without *any* bipartisan support.… https://t.co/Qmybl4wlz2 — Senate Republicans (@Senate Republicans) 1615052436.0
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Is it any wonder that the once Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln is now known merely as the gop?
...goq
goQAnon ?
c
The 2022 midterm elections will obliterate the gop!
kind of how the GOP got obliterated in 2010? or 2020? or anywhere in between?
More like 2008 and 2018...
ha ha, if only I had a buck for every time some yahoo declared the GOP dead!
GOP minds have been obliterated, just as so many of your posts, clearly do illustrate it.
lol.
you a funny man.
Well, you lost the presidency, senate, and dems retained the house in 2020 so yeah...
lol.
some day you may learn about election cycles.
Democrats lost House seats, since you seem to have forgotten it.
I've noticed Biden is trying to import as many new voters as he can.
Taking lessons from the GOP, “fuck it, do whatever it takes to win.”
what da you mean, FUnny how ?
funny as in amusing.
sorry, tough doing a Joe Peshi impreshi via type
but don't worry, i laugh my asz off at you all the time as well
Why, that is just wonderful, yes-sir-ee Bob!
Well I hope the Democrats are satisfied because they aren't likely to pass anything else with or without budget reconciliation loopholes.
That's only for this year. The rules allow a reconciliation once per fiscal year so they will be able to do it again after Sept. 30th in the 2022 fiscal year.
But this seed is just a lot of partisan nonsense. I never expected the GOP to jump for joy when the bill was passed but they knew in advance there was little they could do to prevent it from passing. Simple numbers. I do expect that the pieces of this will be used heavily in advertising in the 22 elections.
I think they could have gotten a bipartisan stimulus passed normally but this thing was just to bloated. People will get their 1400.00 but it cost every Man, Woman, and Child in America over 6000.00 each. That's a lot of Pork.
Lol please, the GOP never had any intention of coming at this thing honestly, see their $600 billion offer. You aren’t serious about negotiating whe. You offer less than 1/3 of what the other side is asking, you are just calling them assholes.
In total, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal, only $825 billion of the $1.9 trillion package is directed towards actual COVID-19 relief. In other words, more than half of the bill is nothing but pork.
But isn't that how negotiating works? Party A makes the first offer which is very high, Party B counters with a very low offer. They negotiate and eventually reach a spot where both sides agree, neither side gets everything they want but they end up with a product that both sides agree is the best they can create. Politics is supposed to work thru negotiation.
But the extreme partisanship between the two parties doesn't allow them to work together on a bill like this. You want to blame the GOP in this but one can just as easily blame the Dem's here as they would not negotiate on this and decided to just push thru on their own. They had the numbers so they could do it, but it doesn't make it good government. But if you are willing to overlook how the Democrats handled this bill (in reality based on the numbers in House and Senate because they could just push it thru with the reconciliation rules in the Senate) then you have no grounds for being upset when ACB was nominated and confirmed to SCOTUS as the Republicans had the numbers and could do what they wanted at that point. I'm not saying either action was good government in action, but its really a goose / gander thing.
Except the gop's obstructionism repulses the voters.
What worked for the gop in the Obama era fails now.
Don't get all excited just yet. Once the voters have had a good chance to see how dishonest the Dems are, all the supposed new support that got Biden over the finish line, will likely dry up by 2022
The Republicans haven't obstructed anything to this point, and the Dems will get the full blame when the crap starts hitting the fan.
If they stick with their usual campaign tactics yeah, they will lose in 2022. What they need to do is defend their bill and remind everyone that they gave people money while the GOP wanted to give them the finger.
The bill will funnel $50 million into what is often referred to as Planned Parenthood’s slush fund.
also known as the Democrats' piggy bank!
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Eh, fine with me. PP does good work.
Yep.... they help keep women alive by providing medical services while working towards preventing unwanted pregnancies. Money well spent.