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Kentucky Senior Senator, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is at the center of congressional negotiations on another aid package. Kentucky voters didn’t punish McConnell for long-stalled talks in November, instead awarding him an uneven victory by securing a seventh term.
He spent the campaign bragging about the money he gave to the Bluegrass state in the massive federal aid package approved at the start of the pandemic.
While reports of hardship are mounting in Kentucky, much of the political pressure is not on McConnell but on the state’s Democratic governor. Andy beshear.
Bruce Schreiner and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn report for the Associated Press that Beshear is coming under fire from business owners and state Republican leaders who believe the virus-related restrictions it has imposed on daily life in Kentucky have gone too far.
Emboldened by the gains made in the November elections, Republican legislative leaders are expected to push to control Beshear’s authority to take emergency action when the legislature meets next year.
Beshear says he’s focused on saving lives, but Congress must do its part and pass more aid.
“We need people to be not Democrats or Republicans, but human beings and do the right thing,” the governor said in an interview. “People are dying, people are suffering. This is the time to invest in our people and their safety ”.
Kentucky has seen 190,601 coronavirus cases, with 3,836 recorded yesterday. There have been 2,014 deaths.
“There is no reason why we should not deliver another major pandemic aid package to help the American people through what appears to be the last chapters of this battle,” McConnell said in a Senate speech this week. In her home state, anxiety increases along with deaths, infections, and hospitalizations.
In a region already reeling from the decline of coal mining, Eastern Kentucky Pastor Chris Bartley has heard an unprecedented chorus of pleas for help from people whose lives have been shattered by the economic turmoil caused by Covid. -19.
“You hear the desperation in the phone calls: I have to pay the rent today. I’ve done everything I can. I’ve offered to rake leaves or cut grass or whatever I can do. ‘ They lost their job or the stimulus ran out, ”said Bartley, associate pastor of a Methodist church in Pikeville, Kentucky.
Meanwhile, Beshear delivers daily doses of grim news about virus cases and deaths in the state and pushes for another economic lifeline for struggling businesses, the unemployed, and state and local governments.
“We saw that the first round of funding from the CARES Act really flowed through our economy in a positive way,” he said. “People needed the dollars. They spent the dollars. We saw business raised for those dollars. We were able to use funds to help people stay in their homes with an eviction relief fund. Pay your utility bills so they don’t go into debt. “
Beshear has carefully avoided calling McConnell or President Donald Trump as the stalemate drags on. Republicans dominated federal and state elections last month in Kentucky. “I’m willing to take whatever blame people want to throw out there,” he said.
“If that means your relatives are still around for Christmas this year and Christmas next, I’ll take it.”
