Reduced Package
Democrats reduced their stimulus demands from a $3.4 trillion bill the House passed in May. But the legislation approved Thursday is still more than Republicans have said they could accept. Also, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier that it was rife with “poison pills” that have nothing to do with pandemic relief.
House Republicans cast the bill as pure political messaging, more of a left-wing, campaign-year wish list that showed how far apart the two sides are than genuine legislating.
Top Appropriations Committee Republican Kay Granger of Texas characterized the package as a “damaging partisan bill.” She said it “was crafted without the input from members on our side of the aisle and does not have the support needed to pass the Senate or be signed by the president.”
Mnuchin said Trump instructed his negotiators “to come up significantly” from the initial GOP proposal of a $1 trillion pandemic relief plan.
Republican Counter
They offered Pelosi a maximum of $1.6 trillion, some of which was covered by unused small business relief funds, according to people familiar with the proposal.
Pelosi underscored before the House vote that she’d still work on negotiations for a bill that both the House and Senate could pass, and Trump can sign into law. “I’m hopeful that they can produce something. I never say this is the last chance.”
“We could come right back and prepare to do another bill,” assured Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, if talks were to turn around.
Some House Democrats had for weeks been pressuring their leaders to allow such a vote, in lieu of a bipartisan deal, as they hit the final stretch of their re-election campaigns.
Gauging Intentions
“I can’t tell how much of this is genuine effort to pass a bill and how much is position-taking prior to the election,” said Josh Huder, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s governmental affairs institute.
Some political analysts suggest Pelosi and House Democrats have less to lose politically from a stalemate on stimulus than the White House and Republicans.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters Wednesday it would hurt re-election chances for a growing list of endangered Senate Republicans. And House political strategists on both sides acknowledge that some moderate Democrats from swing districts need to show that they tried to act -- although the same is true of Republicans in similar purple areas.
Job losses, shutdowns of businesses, and other potentially catastrophic economic events do not fall neatly into districts exclusively held by either Democrats or Republicans.
Polling by the Financial Times-Peterson Foundation in mid-September found 89% of those asked said another relief package was needed. As for a failure to get a deal, Democrats and Republicans were seen as equally responsible, both nationally and within so-called “battleground states.”
This story was provided by Bloomberg News.