After opposing wildly popular stimulus package, GOP hopes to gnaw away at public support

[DonViejo]

Republicans flee in all directions: They'll take credit for parts of the package, while claiming it's useless

By RAMSEY TOUCHBERRY MARCH 12, 2021 10:50AM (UTC)

It's a situation that would normally have public relations professionals kicking themselves: Nearly $2 trillion is about to go out the door to tens of millions of Americans across the country — including individual $1,400 checks — and congressional Republicans can't claim credit for any of it to their constituents back home.

With zero Republicans in either chamber voting for the whopping pandemic relief bill just signed by President Biden, GOP lawmakers have backed themselves in a difficult corner, publicly at odds with widely popular legislation among the public. The message thus far from Republicans has been that the measure was riddled with "state bailouts," as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy put it, that "rewarded [Democrats'] political friends instead of solving a problem."

But now that the bill has become law and financial relief is about to land in the pockets of most Americans, Republicans are starting to tailor their strategy toward gradually chipping away public support. Part of that includes the continuation of a reality-warping message that a post-pandemic boom will have "nothing" to do with the latest stimulus (economists have said that is not the case) because the economic recovery was already well underway thanks to actions taken under former President Donald Trump.

The move is a blatant attempt to get ahead of Democrats and deny them the ability to claim future credit.

more
https://www.salon.com/2021/03/12/after-opposing-wildly-popular-stimulus-package-gop-hopes-to-gnaw-away-at-public-support/

[LizBeth]

1. Well I tell you, not only extending UI but I went to bookkeeper yesterday about taxes. What the bill

did to save my ass and all the rest of us that were about to be hit with a tax bill, not a refund will not be forgetting what our democratic leaders did for us. Pretty damn big and cannot be hidden.