Finally, something Trump and Democrats agree on: Americans deserve more than $600 in individual stimulus payments.
Yesterday, the House passed a bill with bipartisan support to increase individual stimulus checks to $2,000, but today, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to bring the measure to a vote in the Senate. Instead, McConnell wanted the Senate not only to increase stimulus aid, but also to indulge Trump’s irrelevant demands that the election be investigated, and that social media companies’ immunity from certain liability be curbed. “This week the Senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus,” McConnell said.
Trump and McConnell do not seem to be on the same page. Today, quote-tweeting a Washington Post article headlined, “McConnell blocks Democrats’ attempt to quickly approve $2,000 stimulus checks amid pressure on GOP to act,” Trump wrote, “Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $2000 payments ASAP. $600 IS NOT ENOUGH! Also, get rid of Section 230 – Don’t let Big Tech steal our Country, and don’t let the Democrats steal the Presidential Election. Get tough!”
Perhaps Trump had surpassed his Washington Post monthly article limit, because the link he attached explains that McConnell’s lack of action was a direct result of his having acquiesced to the president’s nonsensical demands. McConnell wants to figure out a way to wedge the repeal of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which protects websites from having any liability for the content their users upload, into an otherwise straightforward bill that Republican Senators—including David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia—would be willing to sign.
Keep in mind that the bill authorizing higher stimulus checks is separate from the defense bill that Trump vetoed in part because it didn’t repeal Section 230. In a bipartisan vote yesterday, the House overrode Trump’s veto, and the Senate may be poised to do the same. This small act of disobedience on the part of congressional Republicans has led Trump to antagonize those who have stuck by his side most loyally for the past four years. “Weak and tired Republican ‘leadership’ will allow the bad Defense Bill to pass,” he tweeted this morning. “A disgraceful act of cowardice and total submission by weak people to Big Tech. Negotiate a better Bill, or get better leaders, NOW! Senate should not approve NDAA until fixed!!!”
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