Don't you know I'm a 2,000 man
| EDITOR'S NOTE
Hello,
It took nearly a week of unnecessary drama. But over the weekend the president finally signed the $900 billion Covid relief plan and the $1.4 trillion government spending package.
President Trump's signature, which was thought to be a formality about a week ago, spared the government from a shutdown. It also secured a new round of aid for people and businesses struggling with the coronavirus pandemic. Yet it cost millions of people a week of enhanced unemployment support.
The president didn't get any of the changes he wanted in the massive legislation. But he still might get the $2,000 stimulus checks he demanded when he held up the bill. That's because House Democrats wanted bigger payments to begin with. The $600 stimulus checks for individuals, as carved out in the bill Trump signed into law Sunday, were a compromise. Republican leaders in Congress, positioning themselves as renewed fiscal hawks as Democrat Joe Biden is set to take over the Oval Office in about three weeks, were against a new round of direct payments.
The push for $2,000 checks has further exposed the rift in the Republican Party, however. In a surprising result, the Democratic-controlled House passed a bill to beef up the stimulus payments with a two-thirds majority, showing that many Republicans remain onboard with Trump's populist politics. Now it's up to the Senate, which has a Republican majority.
That leaves Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell in a tough position. Does he bring the vote on $2,000 checks to the floor, or does he hold off? His majority is at stake next week in two Georgia runoff elections, and holding a vote on the payments could give both Republican incumbents in that state, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, a chance to vote for an extremely popular piece of legislation. Yet there are many in McConnell's caucus who don't want to spend the additional money. McConnell himself is reluctant to embrace such a policy.
Democrats have framed the Georgia Senate races as a referendum on McConnell, as well. So if the $2,000 stimulus check measure fails, even if Perdue and Loeffler vote for it, the majority leader will get the blame. Elect Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, Democrats say, and McConnell will no longer stand in the way of progress.
Adding to the pressure on McConnell is the Senate's pending vote to override Trump's veto of the $740 billion annual defense appropriations bill, a vote the GOP leader supports. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has been a staunch advocate for bigger direct payments, has threatened to hold up the vote on the veto override to secure a vote for the $2,000 checks. After the House voted to override the veto yesterday, the Senate was expected to take up a vote on it today. So stay tuned.
Thoughts? Email Politics Editor Mike Calia at CNBCPolitics@nbcuni.com.
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