Biden's not lifting finger to rally Democrats around a real pandemic relief check, which should be $2,000 per person per month. Instead, McConnell and the Senate Republicans + Manchin and his conspirators among the House "Problem Solvers" and Blue Dogs are grudgingly agreeing to a measly one-time $600.00 check. What assholes! Last night, Jeff Stein, writing for the Washington Post, reported that Trump agreed with the progressives and his White House staff had to keep him "from issuing a statement calling for substantially larger stimulus payments for millions of Americans." He told allies on a phone call late yesterday that "he believes stimulus payments in the next relief package should be 'at least' $1,200 per person and possibly as big as $2,000 per person."
People are going to go hungry and get evicted because of this:
Trump was in the middle of formally drafting his demand for the larger payments when White House officials told him that doing so could imperil delicate negotiations over the economic relief package, the officials said. Congressional Republicans have insisted that the relief bill remain less than $1 trillion, and it’s currently designed to cost around $900 billion. Larger stimulus checks could push the package’s total over $1 trillion.
An official White House statement said that Señor T "has heard from Americans all over the country who are hurting through no fault of their own, and he’s made clear he wants the next round of relief to include stimulus checks at a significant number. We’re working with Congress to settle on an agreement that can pass as soon as possible." Last Sunday, Trump told Fox's Brian Kilmeade that $600 isn't enough. "Right now," he told Fox viewers, "I want to see checks-- for more money than they're talking about-- going to people... I'm pushing it very hard, and to be honest with you, if the Democrats really wanted to do the deal, they'd do the deal."
But it isn't "the Democrats." It's McConnell, the Republicans and the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- the Blue Dogs and New Dems led by Joe Manchin in the Senate and Josh Gottheimer in the House, with Hoyer's connivance. Originally, the right wings of both parties left the direct stimulus checks out of the all-conservative fake bipartisan pandemic relief proposal "pushed by the anti-family Austerity fanatics from both parties. "A $600 check per person was added by McConnell and Pelosi back into negotiations after Bernie, AOC the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri threatened to tank the bill without the direct payments.
A one-time $600 check is not a significant number. Ro Khanna, one of about 50 progressives pushing for $2,000 monthly checks, told the media that he and other progressives will hold their noses and vote for the lousy, totally inadequate McConnell-Pelosi take-it-or-leave-it bill. In September Trumpanzee told reporters-- after a niggardly offer by the House Republicans and the Blue Dogs-- that he'd "like the larger amount, I’ve said that... Some of the Republicans disagree, but I think I can convince them to go along with that because I like the larger number. I want to see people get money." That was before the election. Now he doesn't care all that much. And Biden refuses to invest any of his own political capital in it-- instead ranting and raving about how "diverse" his dog-shit cabinet is.
And people are wondering why we're not going to get a 9/11-style commission to study the government's dreadful and failed COVID response. Early Thursday morning, Chuck Todd and his crew reported that people are wondering if Congress is "going to create a 9/11-like commission to study what went wrong with the United States’ handling of the coronavirus-- after more than 300,000 and counting deaths, an erosion in trust in our government and allegations of political interference and manipulation?" Todd blames it all on Trump-- and he may deserve the lion's share of blame, but governors and congressional conservatives should be lined up against the same wall the Trump is put in front of.