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They say politics makes for strange bedfellows, and the fight over $2,000 stimulus checks certainly has.
In the red-hot political battle over whether to raise the latest round of direct stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000, President Trump and Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanderswho are, in normal times, bitter political foeshave effectively joined forces to push hard for the increase.
But they face a formidable obstacle: Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who shot down attempts to approve the measure during a heated debate in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.
The dispute has exposed an unusual political alignment between Trump, left-leaning Democrats, and some Republicans as Washington scrambles to relieve the worst of the economic damage inflicted by the raging COVID-19 pandemic. And its put Trump on a collision course with McConnell, straining a relationship that has loomed over American politics throughout his presidency.
Trump held up a $900 billion stimulus measure for five days last week while demanding Congress agree to increase the size of the checks to $2,000, an amount which Sanders has repeatedly championed. The House approved a measure to do precisely that on Monday, leaving the Senate as the only institutional stumbling block to bigger payments.
On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted: $2000 for our great people, not $600! They have suffered enough from the China Virus!!!
But McConnell, in typical fashion, is playing his cards close. On Tuesday, he spoke in cryptic and evasive language about his position, leaving the door open to the possibility that the Senate would find a way to move forward with higher payments later this week.
McConnell connected the issue of the larger checks with two of Trumps other favorite talking points: repealing protections for social media companies, and baseless allegations of voter fraud. McConnell suggested these three issues could be woven together into some kind of legislative action in the Senate this week, but gave no details.
Those are the three important subjects the president has linked together, McConnell said. This week, the Senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus.
Yet McConnell also blocked Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who tried to raise a vote in the Senate to increase the size of the checks.
I dont want to hear that we cant afford it, said Schumer, demanding action. Even President Trump supports $2,000 checks.
Sanders followed Schumer and urged the Senate to vote to increase the direct payments.
Now it is time for the Senate to step up to the plate and do what the working families of this country overwhelmingly want us to do, Sanders said. These families in the middle of the winter, now face the threat of eviction and the possibility of being thrown out in the streets. Hunger in America is at the highest level it has been for decades.read more
Bernie Sanders And Trump Are Teaming Up Against Mitch McConnell to Get You $2,000
