Republicans Did EXACTLY What We All Knew They Would ($2,000 Checks)

This is my stimulus update for Thursday, December Twenty-Fourth, Happy Christmas Eve. 

Tomorrow is Christmas, the day after is the unemployment cliff, the end of the year is the housing cliff, there will be no stimulus checks arriving next week, and the government will shut down on Tuesday without Trump’s signature on the government funding omnibus or another continuing resolution is passed. 

So yes, 2020 is going out with a bang, and in a surprise to absolutely no one, Republicans just this morning said no to Trump slash Nancy Pelosi’s demand for two thousand dollar stimulus checks, like I said yesterday hats off to Nancy Pelosi, because she played Republicans like a freaking fiddle here, Trump gave her this golden opportunity on a silver platter to look like a stimulus hero while making Congressional Republicans look like a stimulus villain, and she took it and ran with it. 

I mean, what did Trump think, that Congressional Republicans were going to say “yes” to two thousand dollar stimulus checks after pushing “skinny, skinny, skinny” for months?  Of course they were going to say “no” to two thousand dollars checks, they’re the freaking G.O.P., and so what’s the headline that everybody’s seeing today?  “GOP blocks House Democrats’ attempt to pass two thousand dollar stimulus checks.”  So as discussed yesterday, Nancy Pelosi and Democrats attempted to get unanimous consent, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer offered a standalone bill for two thousand dollar stimulus checks from the House floor for unanimous consent, we discussed what that means yesterday. 

We haven’t seen this bill, we don’t know who they’re saying is eligible, but the thing you need to know is that Republicans blocked it, just like Nancy Pelosi knew they would, like we said yesterday, she knew she wasn’t going to get unanimous consent on this, either McCarthy said yes and at least one Republican objected or McCarthy said no altogether, and it turned out to be the latter, but it doesn’t really matter, because either way, Republicans look like the bad guys here. 

And of course Republicans are saying that Pelosi’s not acting in good faith here, it’s a bluff, OK, maybe that’s true, Pelosi did stonewall standalone bills for the better part of a year, but even if that’s true, they failed to call her on it, they still had a bona fide opportunity to give the people two thousand dollar stimulus checks and they didn’t.  They blocked it. 

Of course hardcore Republicans are going to say Pelosi was bluffing, while hardcore, party-line Democrats are going to say the opposite, but the undecided voter in Georgia who’s struggling right now and doesn’t really follow politics that much, what are they gonna do?  They’re going to read this headline today, and say, “Uh, Congressional Republicans suck, I’m not voting to keep Perdue and Loeffler in there,” even though this thing was blocked in the House, right, but Senate Republicans and House Republicans are more or less cut from the same cloth, we just talk about Senate Republicans more because they have more power right now than House Republicans because Republicans control the Senate. 

And now Pelosi can issue another statement, this one saying, this is just from this morning, and you know, you know she had this prewritten, I would guess she had this written in some form the night that Trump made his statement, Pelosi said: “Today, on Christmas Eve morning, House Republicans cruelly deprived the American people of the two thousand dollars that the President agreed to support. 

If the President is serious about the two thousand dollar direct payments, he must call on House Republicans to end their obstruction.  House and Senate Democrats have repeatedly fought for bigger checks for the American people, which House and Senate Republicans have repeatedly rejected – first, during our negotiations when they said that they would not go above six hundred dollars and now, with this act of callousness on the Floor.  On Monday, I will bring the House back to session where we will hold a recorded vote on our stand-alone bill to increase economic impact payments to $2,000. 

To vote against this bill is to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny them the relief they need.  Hopefully by then the President will have already signed the bipartisan and bicameral legislation to keep government open and to deliver coronavirus relief.”  So that’s what’s next as Nancy Pelosi roasts the Republicans here, she didn’t get unanimous consent today, and she knew the whole time she wouldn’t, so on Monday she’s going to put two thousand dollar stimulus checks on the House Floor for a vote, will it pass in the Democrat-controlled House, maybe, maybe, the question of course is will McConnell put this thing on the Senate floor, and again, it’s a lose-lose for him, if he puts this on the floor, everything he’s said about targeted stimulus goes right out the window, because giving two thousand dollar stimulus checks to Americans is obviously not targeted, and if he doesn’t put it on the floor, he looks like a stimulus grinch, and Nancy Pelosi looks like a stimulus saint.  Interesting here that Pelosi ends her statement by saying hopefully by Monday Trump will have signed the combined stimulus and government funding omnibus that Congress passed on Monday. 

Senator Roy Blunt this morning, who is part of Senate Republican leadership, told a reporter today that he doesn’t think the Senate would bring up a two thousand dollar stimulus check bill, no surprises there, and if they did he doesn’t think it would get sixty votes for cloture. 

Now, on the other hand, we know that McConnell reportedly became more open to six hundred dollar stimulus checks because he felt it would help Republicans’ chances in Georgia, will he feel the same about two thousand and in so doing abandon all his “targeted” stimulus principles? 

I would be completely shocked if he did.  Now, Senator Blunt also said that he thinks that Trump should just sign the bill that Congress passed on Monday and give up on his latest push to change things up, and he also said he has no idea what Trump plans to do. 

Now, in fairness here, Democrats blocked a move by Republicans this morning as well.  Republicans tried to get unanimous consent today on reexamining the foreign aid portions of the government funding omnibus, Kevin McCarthy released a statement yesterday saying, “House Democrats appear to be suffering from selective hearing,” meaning, yeah, they heard Trump say two thousand dollar stimulus checks but didn’t hear his criticism about all the foreign aid we’re sending other countries, which we’ve done every year by the way, including throughout Trump’s presidency, and you could make this same criticism of Republicans, say they’re having selective hearing too with the two thousand dollar stimulus checks, McCarthy continues, “They have conveniently ignored the concerns expressed by the President and shared by our constituents that we ought to reexamine how our tax dollars are spent overseas while so many of our neighbors at home are struggling to make ends meet. 

Thus, Republicans will offer a unanimous consent request to revisit the State and Foreign Operations title of the Omnibus so that we can fully address the concerns at hand.”  So today Republicans tried to get unanimous consent on reexamining the foreign spending under the guise of, “Hey, we want to put less money overseas and take it right back here for the American people,” and Democrats blocked it, but what’s more catchy, folks? 

Being the gal pushing for two thousand stimulus checks or being the guy pushing to reexamine the State and Foreign Operations title of the Omnibus?  So House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is kind of backing Trump here at least on the foreign aid, we haven’t heard as much from Mitch McConnell.  In fact, Roy Blunt, who I told you about earlier, also told this reporter this morning that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to reopen these foreign aid provisions, so that could be an indication of where McConnell’s head is at as well. 

We do know that as Trump has now vetoed the Defense Authorization Act, McConnell is calling back the Senate next week to overturn Trump’s veto at least from the Senate perspective, will he be willing to do the same if Trump vetoes the stimulus slash omnibus bill?  Maybe, McConnell doesn’t need Trump at this point, McConnell will become the most powerful Republican in Washington on January Twentieth, he doesn’t need Trump anymore, it becomes more interestingly though if Trump employs the pocket veto here, it’s usually a ten day thing, but because the bill hasn’t gone to Trump yet, there will be less than ten days between the time Trump receives the bill and Congress adjourns on January Third. 

This means Trump could just not actively veto it but just refuse to sign it, the pocket veto, and this would force Congress, the new Congress that will convene on January Third, to take it up again if that’s what they want to do. 

But that’s where we’re at, on Democrats standalone two thousand dollar stimulus check bill, Democrats tried to get unanimous consent for it today in the House, top House Republican Kevin McCarthy did not approve it, and so Pelosi and Hoyer will now have full floor vote on it on Monday, it could very well pass the House, will it pass the Senate, will McConnell even put it up in the Senate, that’s an entirely different story, Mitch McConnell has pushed skinny, skinny, skinny, why would he go for a two thousand dollar stimulus check now? 

Will Georgia sway him, is that enough, I don’t know.  That is my stimulus update for now, thank you so much for watching, and I will see you in the next video.