McConnell and Pelosi fail to agree on Covid Relief bill as Americans suffer
Pollemix News – December 08, 2020
Mitch McConnell appeared to pour cold water on the prospects of a bipartisan agreement on a Covid Relief bill before the end of the year. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, McConnell accused Democrats of an “all-or-nothing approach” and pushing for a comprehensive bill that includes funding for states and non-Covid related priorities:
“…everyone knows why this [Covid bill] hasn’t happened. There’s one reason, the Speaker of the House and the Democratic leader have spent the month tying the most bipartisan common sense policy to their most controversial requests, saying the country can’t get the former unless it gets the latter.”
For their part Democrats have scaled back their demands for a comprehensive $2.4 Trillion Covid relief package in September to a more narrowly targeted $908 billion bill that has some bipartisan support, however, it will be Majority Leader McConnell who will be the final arbiter on whether the GOP passes it through the Senate. McConnell’s main point of contention is the failure for the bill to provide limits on Coronavirus related lawsuits for businesses, which Democrats have dismissed as providing a ‘shield’ for companies that fail to adequately protect their employees from contracting Covid. Democrats meanwhile are pushing for the legislation to include federal funding for state governments which the Republicans have blasted as bailouts for mismanaged Democrat regions of the country.
The Democrat proposal would implement $300 per week in additional unemployment benefits, as well as $288 billion in small business loans, $160 billion in funding for state and local governments, $82 billion for schools and $16 billion for Covid vaccine distribution and tracing. It does not, however, include another round of $1,200 stimulus checks which were a key component of the CARES Act in March.
Although there remain clear areas of disagreement both parties seem far nearer to reaching bipartisan accord then they have in months, and it is now contingent on them to negotiate a deal to provide much needed relief to the American people suffering under the economic devastation wrought by the resurgent pandemic.
Who’s responsible for the failure to pass a 2nd Coronavirus relief bill?
