Pelosi, Schumer reject McConnell's 'ununified, unserious and unsatisfactory' COVID-19 bill

[kpete]

Joan McCarter
Daily Kos Staff

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected the Republicans initial effort to provide coronavirus relief. Responding to reports that Sen. Mitch McConnell and leadership were going to push various elements through as individual appropriations because of an inability to get their own Republicans on board with a larger plan, the Democratic leaders are united in rejecting that approach.

That includes not taking whatever Republicans will offer to avoid the impending cliff of both the rent moratorium and expanded unemployment insurance ending. "This is a package. We cannot piecemeal this," Pelosi said. Schumer added that Democrats would not "take care of one portion of suffering people and leave everyone else hanging." On the floor Thursday morning, Schumer blasted Republicans for being "so divided, so disorganized and so unprepared that they have to struggle to draft even a partisan proposal within their own conference, before they talk to a single Democrat. […] It appears the Republican legislative response to covid is ununified, unserious and unsatisfactory.”

And boy, are Republicans in disarray. “What in the hell are we doing?” Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas railed in a luncheon Tuesday with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, during which they attempted to woo the Republican senators. Cruz argued that there shouldn't be more relief funding, that they should be forcing reopening instead despite the fact that his state is among the worst for new infections and deaths. “I just walked out of a meeting that could be sort of a Bernie bros, progressive caucus,” Sen. Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, whined afterwards. “I’m alarmed that we’re talking about spending another trillion dollars we don’t have.” Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, whose state is currently dying of coronavirus, has also said he'd block the aid because "Democrats just want to spend money." And Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin "just [doesn't] see the need for it."

For those keeping count at home, that's four out of the 53 Republicans in the Senate. McConnell needs a minimum of 50 to do anything, absent Democratic votes. Which he's not getting........

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More:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/23/1963216/-Pelosi-Schumer-reject-McConnell-s-ununified-unserious-and-unsatisfactory-COVID-19-bill?utm_campaign=trending

[stopbush]

1. "Spend another trillion we don't have" says Rick Scott

You mean like the $1.5-trillion we spent in 2017 to give the super rich a tax cut?

28-million Americans facing eviction. “I just don’t see the need for it.” says Ron Johnson of Wisconsin of additional virus relief spending.

BTW - as Congressmen, both of those guys are being paid $174,000 a year in tax payer money.