By Bradley Blankenship
THE time is ticking for a new round of stimulus in the U.S. as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin must come to an agreement by Tuesday in order to have a bill passed by Election Day on November 3. The speaker’s words are probably true given the sheer complexity of the American legislative process, but her uncharacteristically tough attitude at the 11th-hour as the election draws near raises some suspicion for Americans who need more stimulus and less political sparring.
Members of Pelosi’s own party even hammered away at her over her stimulus negotiations with Republicans. Congressman Ro Khanna, a California progressive, tweeted in favor of the Trump administration’s proposal, and even CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who is by no means a working class hero, got into a heated exchange with the speaker last Tuesday over her handling of the talks.
“With all due respect, you really don’t know what you’re talking about,” an upset Pelosi told Blitzer, later calling him a Republican “apologist” over his criticism over handling of the negotiations.
“So do a service to the issue and have some level of respect for the people who have worked on these issues, written the bill to begin with,” she said.
According to the speaker, her party has favorable leverage, but Democrats have balked at these opportunities before. Because of this, the speaker’s progressive critics call on her time and time again to be more tough against Republicans and fight for the party’s professed values. While it may be cynical to say it, the most clear explanation here is obviously political calculus. If another stimulus is passed before the election, this would potentially bolster Trump’s poll numbers a few points and might even help swing polls in a few tough congressional races.
Here’s the hitch: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been the one all along keeping a new stimulus from going through. The House passed its HEROES Act on May 15 and McConnell has sat on his hands, adjourning the Senate during several critical moments when Americans needed Congress to get to work. Members of the ideologically renegade Senate Republican Caucus who are to McConnell’s right are also totally unwilling to pass anything – even a deal brokered by the White House.
It’s only now that the Senate – a do-nothing obstructionist body – is doing anything because McConnell would like to ram another Supreme Court nominee through before the election just as they did with federal judge appointees during the summer. This is because the Republican Senate leadership expects Trump to lose and they are not willing to get to work on stimulus to save him nor hand over a better-functioning economy to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, which could hurt them as the opposition party in the future.
A smart political move for Pelosi would be to get to the table with Mnuchin in a serious manner, come up with a plan and put it to McConnell. The ball must be in his court and if he rejects it, then it’s on him. This would reflect even worse on Trump should his party buck his stimulus diplomacy, could potentially fracture the Republican Party for years and, if played right, could even backfire on some of those tough races for Republicans.
Political calculus aside, this is probably the one chance that Americans have at getting a stimulus package until the early part of next year. It seems like Trump is set to lose his re-election bid and if that happens then there’s absolutely zero chance of a lame-duck bill getting passed. As mentioned before, Republicans will not hand over an even slightly functional country to Democrats and, on top of that, Trump will no doubt lose interest in the legislative fight.
Another dimension that McConnell has thrown into the negotiations is the Senate’s scheduled votes this week for “targeted” stimulus on the stand-alone Paycheck Protection Program bill to help small businesses and a $500 billion stimulus package, which falls well short of the @2 trillion sought by Democrats. In order to keep the rational actor narrative going, Pelosi and Democrats should not be the ones rejecting a stimulus proposal first this week or else risk losing their political leverage.
– The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
