Before ‘The Donald’ exits the stage….
Can the ‘lawmakers’ do their job?
The country NEEDS a virus relief bill….
There WILL be a Defense Bill…
This should NOT be about Democrats getting the US Senate…
This SHOULD be about helping PEOPLE….Mitch McConnell be damned.…
The fate this week of the compromise $908 billion coronavirus-relief bill will likely tell us a great deal about how Congress will operate in the Biden Era, especially if Republicans retain control of the Senate.
Either it passes, and serves as a template for how other legislation can clear Congress — i.e., a bipartisan working group (Joe Manchin, Angus King, Mark Warner, Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, Bill Cassidy) reaches a deal, and Nancy Pelosi’s House Democrats and Joe Biden get behind it.
Or it ultimately goes nowhere, and serves as a stark warning that little is happening legislatively in divided Washington — unless Democrats can win control of the Senate in next month’s Georgia runoffs.
“What we did as a group, we came together and said, ‘Listen, we have got to do something,’” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., said on “Meet the Press” yesterday.
“We looked at basically everything that was going to terminate at the end of December … And we said, ‘That can’t be done. We cannot allow this to happen.’ Democrats and Republicans came together. And we’re moving forward.”
The bill provides $300 per week in unemployment benefits for about four months, $160 billion for state and local governments, $288 billion for small businesses — as well as additional funds for schools, vaccine distribution, transportation entities and child care.
Yet some of the sticking points include liability protections for businesses and the bill’s lack of $1,200 direct payments to Americans.
Progress — even if it’s not as much as many Democrats want?
Or continued stalemate?
We’ll likely get an answer this week.
Of course, it’s always easier to pass legislation when Congress faces deadlines during lame-duck sessions.
But we’ll see if this group of bipartisan senators has success in breaking this — as well as future — logjams….