House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, were playing hardball, rejecting the idea of a stopgap unemployment bill that had been floated by some in the GOP, and blaming Republicans for waiting two months to come up with their own bill.
“One of the reasons we are up against this cliff is that Republicans have dithered,” Schumer said.
It’s not clear at this point the delay will substantially shift the end product, given Republicans were going to have to negotiate with Democrats at some point anyway.
For McConnell, the ground shifted dramatically from a few months ago, when he said Republicans wanted to press “pause” on more stimulus. Congress had already passed nearly $3 trillion in relief, and Republicans hoped that the virus would start to fade in the summer and the economy would rebound, allowing either a narrowly crafted Republican bill or none at all.
But talk of “if” they needed another bill became “when” in recent weeks as virus cases, hospitalizations and deaths rocketed, particularly in red states in the South and West, including key presidential election battlegrounds Florida and Arizona. That’s caused a tentative economic recovery from the business shutdowns in March to stall.
The growing political peril for Republicans has been apparent for weeks. Trump’s approval in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls has dropped from 47% at the end of March to 42% as of Thursday.
Democrats lead Republicans by 9 percentage points on a generic ballot question in polls and Democratic challengers have been topping fundraising numbers for incumbent Republicans in key states. On Thursday, the non-partisan Cook Political Report for the first time this year said that Democrats are now favored to take back the Senate and warned of a potential “tsunami” against the GOP.
While McConnell said this week the economy needed another shot of “adrenaline” and backed a further round of direct payments to taxpayers, aid to schools and health care, his flock has been divided over everything from the details of an unemployment extension to the price tag.
Johnson said he simply doesn’t want to spend any more money and plans to oppose the bill he hasn’t seen. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas told CNN he’s a “hell no” on a $1 trillion package, while Rand Paul of Kentucky told another reporter that Republicans were acting like “Bernie Bros” behind closed doors as they discuss among themselves how many hundreds of billions to spend, a reference to ardent supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist.
Trump himself has made it harder to reach a deal.