McConnell advises White House not to strike pre-election stimulus deal with Pelosi.
Source: New York Times
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has advised the White House not to strike a deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a new stimulus bill before Election Day, he told Republican senators privately on Tuesday, cautioning against reaching an agreement that most in the party cannot accept. Mr. McConnell's counsel, confirmed by three Republicans familiar with his remarks, threw cold water on Mr. Trump's increasingly urgent push to enact a fresh round of pandemic aid before he faces voters on Nov. 3. It underscored the divisions within the party that have long hampered a compromise.
Ms. Pelosi had said earlier on Tuesday that she was "optimistic" a deal could be reached with the Trump administration in the coming days. But Republicans are growing increasingly anxious that Mr. Trump and his team are too eager to reach a multitrillion-dollar agreement and are conceding far too much to the Democrats. Republicans fear that scenario would force their colleagues up for re-election into a difficult choice of defying the president or alienating their fiscally conservative base by embracing the big-spending bill he has demanded.
Republicans in the Senate were also concerned that any vote on such a package could interfere with the Senate's hasty timetable for confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court by early next week. Mr. McConnell said he told the White House he was particularly concerned a deal before then could inject unwanted unpredictability into the schedule, according to the Republicans, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss a closed party luncheon.
Mr. McConnell made it clear that he knew his counsel was likely to leak out, making reference to the possibility that his remarks could appear in the news media, two of the Republicans said. A short time later, outside the hearing room where Republicans met privately, Mr. McConnell told reporters the Senate would consider a broad bipartisan stimulus deal if the White House and Democrats struck one. But he would not say if it would hold a vote before Election Day, and members of his leadership team have warned that Republican votes could be hard to come by in the chamber. "If a presidentially supported bill clears the House, at some point we'll bring it to the floor," he said, without elaborating on the timetable.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/business/pelosi-mnuchin-stimulus.html
At least he is admitting to being the block.
ETA - the underlying thing that happens when the GOP decides what to bring up for a vote is the (criminal jailbird) "Hastert Rule" - "the majority of the majority", meaning that most of 400+ bills that he sat on could probably pass with all (D) votes and a few (R) votes, but since the GOP wants to aim to have ALL legislation pass with only GOP votes, then they have purposely created the logjam.
= new reply since forum marked as read
