Before dawn today, CNN's John Harwood was up and tweeting. He had asked a senior House Republican-- likely Steve Scalise or Tom Cole--if there would be any Republican votes for Biden's COVID-relief package. The response was: "Personally I expect zero. no effort to reach out to House Rs by majority or WH. why would any R vote for this?" Well, one reason might be because it would be good for the country and another would be that a significant number of Republican voters-- and an overwhelming number of independent voters -- back it. How are swing district incumbents like Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Don Bacon (NE), Brian Mast (FL), Mike Garcia (CA), Mike Turner (OH), Maria Salazar (FL), John Katko (NY), Rodney Davis (IL), Andrew Garbarino (NY), Tony Gonzales (TX), Ashley Hinson (IA), David Valadao (CA), Jim Hagedorn (MN), Vern Buchanan (FL), Ann Wagner (MO), Steve Chabot (OH), Young Kim (CA), Troy Nehls (TX), Scott Perry (PA), Fred Upton (MI), Bryan Steil (WI), Michael McCaul (TX), Jeff Van Drew (NJ), Lee Zeldin (NY), Troy Balderson(OH), Richard Hudson (NC), Dan Crenshaw (TX), Victoria Spartz (IN), Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA), Rob Wittman (VA), David Joyce (OH), Carlos Giménez (FL), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA), John Carter (TX), Nicole Malliotakis (NY), Nancy Mace (SC), Bob Good (VA), Michelle Steel (CA), Van Taylor (TX), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), Peter Meijer (MI), Beth Van Duyne (TX), Dan Bishop (NC), Chip Roy (TX) and Ken Calvert (CA), none of whom can be reelected without winning a majority of independent voters, going to explain "no" votes to their constituents?
The Punchbowl News crew explained that the House GOP leaders are trying to reprise their 2009 stimulus play and brand Biden’s Covid relief bill as extreme and unnecessary, as they did in voting against Obama's stimulus/rescue package. "McCarthy and Scalise are lobbying all their members to vote against the $1.9 trillion package when it hits the House floor later this week. The only problem here is that the Republican lawmakers have supported much of this spending in the past, and the country is hurting, sick and yearning for a return to normal. Numerous experts-- although it's not universal, as the White House claims-- also predict the 'American Rescue Plan' could bolster a potentially strong rebound for the U.S. economy later this year."
Team Punchbowl also noted that "So far, Republicans’ main push has been to try to label Biden a 'radical.' Biden’s foreign policy is 'radical.' Biden’s immigration policy is 'radical.' Biden’s climate change policy is 'radical.' Biden’s nominees are 'radical.' Biden’s Covid relief bill is a 'payback to the radical left.' Biden is the 'most radical left wing president in history, period.' Something, something, 'Biden is radical.'" The same sick GOP siren song they've been playing since their crashed the economy in 1929 and brought on the Great Depression. Too bad so many Americans have no attention spans and utter cluelessness about history.
Outside of the Fox/Hate Talk radio bubble, no one believes them. The radical tag hasn't stuck. Republicans have left conservatism to corporate Dems like Biden while they romp in the green fields of neo-fascism with their own party's loud extremists. As the Punchbowlers put it, "It didn’t work during the campaign, it hasn’t worked during his first month in office. Biden just doesn’t give off the radical vibe. There’s plenty to criticize Biden for, but yelling 'radical' at every turn isn’t going to work."
This morning Navigator Research released more data on how popular Biden's COVID-rescue plans are, across the partisan board. In fact nearly two-thirds of Americans are more concerned that Congress won't do enough-- than that it will do too much:
Biden's over all handling of the economy has majority support:
And Biden's COVID-rescue package has even higher support than that:
Meanwhile, concerns about the motives and intentions of congressional Republicans should be worrisome to that long list of swing-state GOP incumbents above. If they plan on obstructionism, their only hope for reelection-- and, alas, not an unfounded one-- is sheer DCCC incompetence, something Republicans have learned they can almost always depend on to rescue them in the tight squeezes their venal and failed policies put them into.
