patrick.net

DEMOCRATS BLOCK CORONAVIRUS AID BILL
by Kevin Ryan

Senate Democrats have blocked a coronavirus bill that would have funded the Paycheck Protection Program and unemployment aid, with every single senator in the Democratic caucus voting against it. Fifty-two out of the 53 GOP senators voted in favor of the proposal, which needed 60 votes to advance.
The bill proposed $105 billion for schools, $20 billion for farmers, $10 billion for the US Postal Service, $10 billion for childcare assistance, $47 billion for vaccines and testing, and $258 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, which gives small businesses forgivable loans for retaining employees. It also funded a $300 weekly unemployment subsidy.

"Today every senator will either say they want to send families the relief we can agree to or they can send families nothing. Nothing,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said prior to the vote.

However, Senate Democrats seem to have politically calculated that nothing is better than something, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) saying the half-trillion dollar bill is “pointless”. They’ve been unwilling to come down from their $2.2 trillion bill that includes bailout money for states, as well as for housing and food stamps. And the House is continuing to push its nearly $3.5 trillion HEROES Act, which would provide $600 in weekly unemployment bonuses (on top of regular unemployment) through the inauguration in 2021.

Republicans object to the unemployment bonuses because it would pay most workers more to stay on unemployment than to work. They also object to the massive size of the bill, which would more than double the already-record $3.3 trillion that’s been added to the federal debt. The CBO has already projected that 2020’s deficit will be 120% higher than the previous record set in 2010.

The White House, meanwhile, has been indicating that it’s willing to compromise, offering up to $1.5 trillion, which Democrats rejected. Mounting frustration has some opponents beginning to label Schumer and Pelosi as “Do-Nothing Democrats.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/10/senate-coronavirus-relief-package-411635
https://nypost.com/2020/09/10/dems-block-gop-covid-19-bill-that-included-unemployment-relief/