Our economy is really hurting here, he said. There s no way to get a vote by Jan. 3. The new Congress begins noon Jan. 3. So the new Congress, you could get a vote.
As Congress meets for a rare New Year s Eve session, the standoff over the COVID checks and the defense bill punctuates the president s final days. The one-two rebuke of his demands deepens the divide between the Republican Party s new wing of Trump-styled populists and what had been mainstay conservative views.
The stalemate is expected to drag into the weekend.
An exasperated Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said this week, After all the insanity that Senate Republicans have tolerated from President Trump his attacks on the rule of law, an independent judiciary, the conduct that led to his impeachment is this where Senate Republicans are going to draw the line $2,000 checks to the American people?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell again blocked quick passage of increasing stimulus checks to $2,000, calling the proposal – which was a key demand of President Donald Trump – “socialism for rich people.”
Thursday marks the third time McConnell has blocked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., from quickly approving a House-passed bill that would increase one-time payments from $600 to $2,000 in the COVID-19 relief package the president signed into law Sunday. The blockade all but ensures Congress will be unable to pass legislation increasing the size of the one-time payments, at least until a new Congress convenes next week.
The Kentucky Republican repeatedly bashed Democrats for following Trump’s demand for increasing the checks to $2,000 but ignoring the president s two other mandates: Repealing key legal protections for big tech firms and examining the president’s baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Invalid Date,
SENATOR Mitch McConnell has again blocked $2,000 and slammed the push for bigger payments as socialism for the rich.
The Senate majority leader said on Thursday that the coronavirus relief bill that was passed by the House would send thousands of dollars to people who don’t need the help.
11
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a vote this week to give Americans $2,000 stimulus checksCredit: AFP or licensors
McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, subsequently blocked requests from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Bernie Sanders to hold votes on more stimulus checks this week.
“Borrowing from our grandkids to do socialism for rich people is a terrible way to get help to families who actually need it,” McConnell said.
Trump, who had COVID-19 in October, frequently played down the severity of the pandemic and oversaw a response many health experts have criticized as disorganized, cavalier and sometimes ignored the science behind virus transmission.
Trump said the United States has produced a COVID-19 vaccine in record time and he had correctly predicted this would come before the year ended.
The United States has been one of the countries worst-hit by COVID-19 and leads the world in fatalities, with more than 340,000 deaths officially attributed to the virus.
Trump was originally scheduled to attend a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago resort.