Dems pass $1.9 Trillion Covid bill and $1,400 stimulus checks without GOP support
Pollemix News – February 05, 2020
Vice President Kamala Harris cast her first tie-breaking vote in the Senate after Democrats and Republicans both voted along party lines on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Covid Relief Package leaving them deadlocked at 50-50. It is the first significant Senate action since Biden assumed office and looks to be a harbinger of the near future of the legislative assembly with both parties firmly entrenched in their ideological bunkers.
Currently Democrats hold a relatively slim 10 seat advantage in the House whilst the Senate is evenly split 50-50 between the two parties. The dead heat in the Senate leaves VP Kamala Harris in a uniquely powerful position, as Harris now has the decisive vote should the parties be tied at 50-50.
President Biden had met with a group of 10 moderate GOP Senators this week with the view to nurturing the spirit of bipartisanship he repeatedly called for during his Presidential campaign. Despite the gesture, however, Biden was unhappy with the GOP’s counter-proposal of a narrower, means-tested $600 million package insisting that he would not agree to break his campaign pledge to provide a further round of stimulus checks to Americans struggling to survive the ongoing pandemic.
The main point of contention has been the cost of the bill with Republicans rediscovering their fiscal conservatism after a 4 year hiatus. Despite a spiralling debt and deficit under the previous administration, GOP lawmakers insist another large coronavirus rescue package will put undue strain on the US economy. Conversely, Democrats are adamant that a new round of stimulus relief checks are desperately needed for the economic rejuvenation that candidate Biden made a cornerstone of his campaign.
Republicans were able to get a modicum of victory by preventing the advent of a nationwide $15 minimum wage being included in the final bill, with West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin likely to break towards Republicans over the issue. Nevertheless, Republicans are aware that the Democrats hold the balance of power over all three chambers of the legislative assembly so their ability to delay or deny Biden’s agenda is extremely limited.
Encouragingly for the Democrats is that many of the proposals put forward thus far in the Biden regime are polling extremely favorably. A February 3 Quinnipiac poll showed that 70% of US adults approved of Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Covid Rescue bill , with even 37% of Trump voters approving. Similarly, an Associated Press poll showed that 74% of Americans had some or a great deal of confidence in Biden’s ability to effectively respond to the pandemic.
Regardless, it is evident that both parties are equally intransigent on their ideological agenda and compromise bills are seemingly little more than a relic of a more collegial past. Thus the next four years seem doomed to be a perpetual cycle of Democrats and Republicans refusing to negotiate, failing to legislate and the nation struggling to rehabilitate after the devastaing fallout of the Coronavirus pandemic.
POLL: Who is to blame for Congress not passing a second round of stimulus checks for Americans?
