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By Irving Biram

The holiday season is a time for generosity — unless your name’s Mitch McConnell.

For the second time this week, the iron-fisted Republican leader of the United States Senate blocked consideration Wednesday of a bill to issue US$2,000 coronavirus stimulus cheques to most Americans and suggested the only way he’d put up the payments for a vote was if they’re bundled together with a couple of unrelated measures despised by Democrats.

President Donald Trump and Democrats are forming an unlikely alliance in pushing for the US$2,000 cheques and, for a second day in a row, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders asked McConnell to allow the Senate to vote on a House-passed measure for the four-figure payouts.

“All we are asking for is a vote — what is the problem?” Sanders said on the Senate floor.

But McConnell, who as majority leader can unilaterally derail legislation, rejected Sanders’ request again and said the proposal has “no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate” because of spending reluctance among rank-and-file Republicans.

“We just approved almost a trillion dollars in aid a few days ago,” McConnell said, referring to the US$908-billion coronavirus stimulus package signed into law by Trump on Sunday that bankrolls US$600 cheques to U.S. taxpayers earning less than US$75,000 per year.

Democrats say the US$600 cheques are not enough and are mounting a legislative push for the amount to be bumped up to US$2,000 per person, with the same income restrictions in place.

Despite signing the bill with US$600 cheques Trump and a handful of his populist GOP allies have joined Democrats in pressing for raising the payments to US$2,000, which would likely increase the stimulus package’s total price-tag by about US$400 billion.

“$2000 ASAP!” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning from his private Florida club, where he’s been cooped up for the holidays.

ALTERNATIVE OFFERED

McConnell, trying to stick to his ideological guns while avoiding a war of words with Trump, offered an alternative to the standoff over the cheques.

He said he’d pick up the proposal for US$2,000 checks if the bill itself also includes language to repeal so-called Section 230 legal protections for social-media companies like Facebook and Twitter as well as a provision to establish a commission to review the integrity of the 2020 election.

Trump wants to repeal Section 230 in apparent retaliation for Facebook and Twitter fact-checking his posts about the election, which he lost to President-elect Joe Biden. A commission to review the integrity of the election is likely also music to Trump’s ears, as he  insists that Biden’s victory was facilitated by mass voter fraud.

But Democrats detest the idea of adding election-related elements to the stimulus measure and there’s ultimately not enough support in either the House or Senate to do so.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said McConnell knows that and argued the Kentucky Republican’s push for the unrelated provisions is a backdoor attempt to doom the US$2,000 checks while also staying in Trump’s good graces.

“It’s a way to kill the bill, make no mistake about it,” Schumer said. “Either the Senate takes up and passes the House bill, or struggling American families will not get US$2,000 checks during the worst economic crisis in 75 years.”

The House passed the bill to pad the cheques Monday and then recessed for the rest of the year.

The Treasury Department expects to start sending out the first US$600 stimulus cheques as early as this week, with the caveat that the amount will be topped up after the fact if Congress appropriates more cash.

The other elements of the US$908-billion stimulus package are also in the pipeline, like boosted aid for the unemployed and cash for coronavirus vaccine distribution at a time when the COVID-19 crisis is rebounding in the U.S. at a catastrophic pace, with the national death toll topping 340,000.

“Ten out of the poorest 25 counties in the United States of America are located in Kentucky. So maybe my colleague, the majority leader, might want to get on the phone and start talking to working families in Kentucky and find out how they feel about the need for immediate help in terms of a $2,000 check.”

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders

The stretch between Christmas and New Year’s Day is typically a time of inaction on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers heading home for the holidays.

But the beef over the stimulus cheques is keeping many of them stuck in Washington this year.

In addition to the stimulus battle, lawmakers are staying put because Trump vetoed the annual US$741-billion defense spending bill.

Trump used his veto pen because Republicans, who are growing increasingly impatient with the outgoing president, rejected his demand for the usually uncontroversial Pentagon bill to include his proposed Section 230 repeal.

The House voted to override the veto on Monday, marking the first such action of Trump’s presidency.

McConnell hoped to quickly pass the override resolution in the Senate on Wednesday, but Sanders blocked him from doing so in retaliation for the GOP leader’s refusal to consider the US$2,000 check bill.

As a result, McConnell was forced to file a motion to begin a more time-consuming process to override the veto, meaning senators will likely have to stay in town to be ready to vote on the matter Friday.

In justifying his hardball gamble, Sanders urged McConnell to speak with some of his constituents about US$2,000 checks.

“Ten out of the poorest 25 counties in the United States of America are located in Kentucky,” Sanders said. “So maybe my colleague, the majority leader, might want to get on the phone and start talking to working families in Kentucky and find out how they feel about the need for immediate help in terms of a $2,000 check.”