McConnell again blocks quick vote on $2,000 stimulus checks, slams ‘socialism for rich people’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell again blocked a quick motion on $2,000 coronavirus stimulus checks on the Senate flooring Thursday as he traded harsh phrases with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
McConnell, R-Ky., in flooring remarks lambasted the House-passed invoice for $2,000 stimulus checks as “socialism for rich people,” in his most direct feedback so far on his opposition to President Trump’s request that stimulus checks be boosted from $600 within the just lately handed stimulus.
“The data show that many upper-middle class Americans have kept their job, work remotely and remain totally financially comfortable,” McConnell stated. “On the other hand, some of our fellow citizens have had their entire existence is turned upside down and continue to suffer terribly. We do not need to let the speaker of the House do socialism for rich people in order to help those who need help.”
FILE – In this Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020, file photograph, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, speaks throughout a information convention with different Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, whereas Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, listens at left. (Nicholas Kamm/Pool Photo by way of AP, File)
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Schumer, D-N.Y., replied that McConnell is simply making an attempt to stall to stop the checks from being handed. He stated the bulk chief’s insistence that the Senate solely take into account checks together with different Trump priorities together with repealing controversial Section 230 legal responsibility protections for on-line platforms and investigating election safety would make it not possible for any to turn into regulation.
“Let me make this offer to the Republican majority. We’re willing to vote on the other issues that President Trump mentioned. All the issues the Republican leader says must be addressed so long as we vote on them separately,” Schumer stated. “If Leader McConnell wants a vote on these issues, we’re here for it. Just give us a vote on the House-passed bill and we can vote on whatever right-wing conspiracy theory you’d like.”
Schumer then requested that the Senate rapidly vote on the House invoice on $2,000 stimulus checks. McConnell objected.
Soon after Schumer spoke, Sen. Bernie Sander, I-Vt., additionally moved to rapidly transfer to a vote on the House invoice for stimulus checks. McConnell objected to that, too.
Sanders stated McConnell’s transfer to tie $2,000 checks to Section 230 repeal and a voter fraud fee is a “poison pill designed to kill that legislation.”
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The uproar over the stimulus checks got here on what was scheduled to be a comparatively tame Thursday within the higher chamber, because it’s prioritized overriding President Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act.
The Senate had no scheduled votes for Thursday. McConnell filed a “cloture petition” on the NDAA veto override Wednesday, which can’t be voted on till two days after it’s filed. The Senate is at present scheduled to take its cloture vote — which means a procedural vote to finish debate — on the NDAA Friday, which might arrange a last vote Saturday.
Between the Senate needing to go the NDAA earlier than the present Congress ends at midday on Sunday and McConnell’s stalling techniques, it’s now extremely unlikely that the Senate will even make it to a vote on $2,000 stimulus checks, not to mention go them.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
