Daily US Times: On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all but shut the door of President Trump’s push for $2,000 coronavirus relief checks, declaring Congress has provided enough Covid-19 aid as he blocked another attempt by Democrats to force a vote. The GOP leaders’ decision means Trump’s push is dead.
The top Republican leader made clear he is unwilling to budge, despite political pressure from President Trump and even some fellow Republican senators demanding action. Trump wants the recent $600 in coronavirus aid increased threefold. But GOP leader McConnell dismissed the idea of bigger “survival checks” approved by the House, saying the aid money would go to plenty of American households that just don’t need it.
The Senate Majority Leader’s refusal to act means the additional relief Trump wanted is all but dead.
“We just approved almost a trillion dollars in aid a few days ago,” he said, adding that “if specific, struggling households still need more help,” the Senate will consider “smart targeted aid. Not another firehose of borrowed money.”
The showdown between the Mr Trump and his own Republican Party over the $2,000 relief checks has thrown Congress into a chaotic year-end session just days before new lawmakers are set to be sworn into office.
It’s one last standoff, together with the override of the outgoing president’s veto of a sweeping defense bill, that will punctuate Mr Trump’s final days and deepen the GOP’s divide between its new wing of Trump-styled populists and what had been mainstay conservative views against government spending.
You may read: White House coronavirus task force warns of ‘unstable’ data during the holidays
