McConnell bill leaves out $1,200 stimulus payments to people, but gives coal industry $161 million

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday September 09, 2020 · 10:37 AM PDT

2020/09/09 · 10:37

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 20: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (L) listens to U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters while hosting Republican congressional leaders and members of Trump's cabinet in the Oval Office at the White House July 20, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump and the congressional leaders talked about a proposed new round of financial stimulus to help the economy during the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

It's been 117 days since the House passed the $3 trillion HEROES Act, which Sen. Mitch McConnell has refused to take up, and it's 21 days until the government runs out of funding with the end of the fiscal year. The programs included in the March CARES Act are gone, and even before they expired "we find millions of people with very serious problems with their finances," says Robert J. Blendon, a poll co-director and executive director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Harvard Chan School, told NPR. "And it's going to get worse because there is nothing for the people we surveyed who earn under $100,000 a year to fall back on."

Because McConnell refuses to act in good faith on behalf of the American people. He's teeing up a vote Thursday on a bill that is clearly just a political ploy, written with his big corporate donors in mind, leaving the people behind. While both Democrats and the Trump White House want another round of direct payments of $1,200 to individuals, McConnell leaves that out of his bill. Instead, he includes this, pointed out by Sen. Bernie Sanders: "$161 million in corporate welfare to the coal industry during a climate emergency."

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That bill from McConnell will not pass, and he doesn't intend it to. He also doesn't intend to put any other coronavirus relief bill on the floor. This is a sop to his Republican members who can point to the bill and say to voters "see, we did that," and to his corporate overlords. This will keep them happy and spending on Republican reelection campaigns because it's his promise to them to keep their interests paramount. It's also enough for him to say: "We tried. Democrats wouldn't let us do it." Because it does nothing much to help people.

But because there is also a government funding deadline just three weeks away, after which Congress will turn to their election campaigns, the chances that more coronavirus relief happens are diminishing by the hour. There is no urgency from the White House. "I don't know," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Politico when asked about prospects for another round. "We'll see. I hope there is. It's important to a lot of people out there."

Democrats have come down in their demands from over $3 trillion with the HEROES Act to $2.2 trillion in negotiations with Mnuchin. McConnell won't do that, despite the fact that it would probably pass in the Senate with all the Democrats and enough Republicans who are panicking behind it. McConnell is doing the only thing he intends to do: Offer a poisoned pill bill and leave it at that. That's because instead of talking with Pelosi, with Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, with Mnuchin, he's been negotiating solely with his Republican conference, not willing to put anything on the floor that doesn't have majority support there. Which means the extremists who want no more relief—Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson—win. They get a stripped down bill that can't pass.

There is not going to be more coronavirus help for anyone because McConnell will only negotiate with Republican senators. When not acting can result in real economic disaster, even a depression. The cynicism, the corruption, the total disregard for any consequences—it's all just mind-boggling. But it's happening and there damn well has to be hell to pay for McConnell and every complicit Republican.

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