Stimulus check update: Democrats squeezed as COVID-19 relief talks continue froggy1003.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from froggy1003.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“We’re making significant progress and I’m optimistic that we’re gonna be able to complete an understanding sometime soon, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Pressure for a deal is intense. Unemployment benefits run out Dec. 26 for more than 10 million people. Many businesses are barely hanging on after nine months of the pandemic. And money is needed to distribute new vaccines that are finally offering hope for returning the country to normal.
McConnell is playing a strong hand in the lame-duck session and is pressuring Democrats to drop a much-sought $160 billion state and local government aid package. Several senior Democrats, including close allies of President-elect Joe Biden who is eager for an agreement have said they would go along now and fight for the aid next year.
The president-elect addresses nation after the Electoral College vote in the 2020 presidential election
On Monday, a majority of presidential electors, 306 to 232 cast their votes for Joe Biden, formally making the 78-year-old the new president-elect of the United States.
Although Biden campaigned as a “moderate” who would unify the country, his various progressive policy proposals and numerous efforts to appease the Democratic Party’s far-left base suggest strongly that Biden could very likely end up becoming in the words of comrade Bernie Sanders the “most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
What, exactly, will Joe Biden’s presidency look like? The answer to that question depends almost entirely on the outcome of the two Senate runoff elections in Georgia.
Democrats resigned to dropping local aid in COVID-19 bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies before a Congressional Oversight Commission hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday Dec. 10, 2020 (Alex Wong/Pool via AP)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, speaks during a news conference following a weekly meeting with the Senate Republican caucus, Tuesday, Dec. 8. 2020 at the Capitol in Washington. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via AP)
Published December 15. 2020 7:45AM | Updated December 15. 2020 7:31PM
By ANDREW TAYLOR, ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) As top Washington negotiators reach for a long-delayed agreement on COVID-19 relief, rank-and-file Democrats appear increasingly resigned to having to drop, for now, a scaled-back demand for fiscal relief for states and local governments whose budget
A growing number of Senate Republicans are acknowledging President-elect Joe Biden
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Top Senate Republicans have also publicly pushed back against talk of trying to object to the election results next month. McConnell didn’t address the issue during a press conference on Tuesday.
Blunt, the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, said Thune had explained to GOP senators the futility of objecting to any state s electoral votes next month.
Thune on Monday said the effort was “not going anywhere.”
If both a House member and senator object, the two chambers would have to meet separately, debate the issue and then have a majority in both chambers vote to uphold the objection to a state’s slate. A lawmaker has never been able to successfully throw out a state s results.