Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that Democrats treat the coronavirus pandemic as a “political game”, blaming leaders on the left for “wrestling people” to wait for critical financial aid.
From the Senate floor on Tuesday, McConnell, R-Ky., Slammed Democrats for blocking pandemic relief “over unrelated liberal demands,” and the press for covering “their stonewalling like any ordinary political standoff.”
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“It’s giving the nation a service to act like these last few weeks were just another routine political disturbance,” McConnell said. “It makes it difficult for girls, and laid-off workers, and stressed school principals, and health care professionals to do a service like this has usually been Washington’s usual gridlock.”
He added: “There are life and death issues on the point – but Democrats have treated this historic national crisis as a political game.”
McConnell said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., is pushing for a state and local tax deduction (SALT) to be included in the fourth coronavirus stimulus package – what McConnell said “makes it clear he does not want pandemic relief” law, unless it has a special state and local tax return for high earners in places like New York. “
McConnell added that Democrats had come to the negotiating table with “dead-on-arrival demands,” including bailouts for “poorly governed states,” but said Democrats and Republicans would “be able to agree on an enormous sweep of topics,” including testing, funding for schools, legal protections, direct payments to Americans and more.
“Republicans everywhere wanted to reach an agreement and then later continue to fight over the disputed issues,” he said. ‘But the Democrats said no – because they know their unrelated wish list items would have no prayer to stand on their own merits. Only these hostage tactics could possibly get their bad ideas about the finish. That hard people have waited, and waited, and got nothing. ”
He added: “That has been the decision of the Democrats.”
‘This is not a Washington game. It is a national crisis, “he continued. “It would serve us better if the Democratic leaders acted on it.”
McConnell’s remarks come as negotiations on Capitol Hill are halted, after weeks of talks with the White House, members of the Trump administration, and Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate.
Over the weekend, President Trump signed four executive actions to provide financial relief to Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic as negotiations for a fourth stimulus package on Capitol Hill reached a stalemate.
Trump’s executive actions included $ 400 a week in additional unemployment benefits – a replacement for the program passed under the CARES law during the year, which gave unemployed people $ 600 a week until the end of the federal program. of July expired.
The action would require states to pay for 25% of the weekly benefit of $ 400, while the federal government would raise 75%.
The $ 400 payment to unemployed Americans came when Republicans on Capitol Hill claimed that the initial unemployment insurance program was incentivizing Americans to return to work, with many raising more money for the unemployed than committing. Republicans pushed for the program to be reduced to $ 200 per week, while Democrats argued that the program should be renewed to the original $ 600 per week.
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The president also outlined executive actions that would encourage federal efforts to help tenants and homeowners avoid eviction or negligence for the failure of their monthly payments; defer the payroll tax from Sept. 1st. until 31 Dec. 2020, for employees making $ 100,000 a year; and stop federal student loan payments and set interest rates at 0% through Dec. 31. 2020 – The current student loan relief program is set to expire on 30 September.
Chamber member Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Dismissed the actions as an ‘illusion’, and Schumer called them ‘laughing’.
Meanwhile, even the Republican sen defeated. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., The actions of Trump, calling it an ‘unconstitutional slope.’
Talks had been stalled for weeks, with Democrats demanding more than $ 3 trillion in the relief bill, while Republicans struggled to finally come together for a $ 1 trillion proposal. Pelosi on Thursday proposed that the parties give $ 1 trillion each and pass a $ 2 trillion proposal, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that the idea was a “non-starter”.
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Mnuchin said on Monday, though, that he believed Democrats might be willing to make compromises.
Regarding the president’s involvement in negotiations, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday that Mnuchin and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows “speak on behalf of the president,” but that the president himself has been “actively engaged in negotiations. “
