Republicans are about to prove the depths of their bad faith
Opinion by Paul Waldman
It’s looking more and more like Democrats’ covid-19 relief bill is going to pass — and it will have to pass without any Republican help. While some advocates of “bipartisanship” might consider that a problem, it’s better seen as good news, proof of how broken the process of legislation has become and how it absolutely must change — and right away.
Both houses of Congress have now passed resolutions — on purely party-line votes — that begin the process toward passing the final bill through the Senate under reconciliation rules. That will allow it to succeed with a majority of votes and not the supermajority required to defeat a Republican filibuster.
While a group of Republican senators recently went to the White House to present President Biden with a covid relief counterproposal, no one seriously thinks more than one or two of them — if any — will wind up voting for the bill. So Democrats have no choice but to proceed with reconciliation.
Nevertheless, Democrats responded to the Republican suggestion by paring down their proposal for $1,400 stimulus checks, lowering the income limit from $75,000 for an individual and $150,000 for a couple to $50,000 and $100,000 respectively.
The White House now argues that the bill is “bipartisan,” because even though it will get complete opposition from congressional Republicans, lots of Republican voters support it. You could call that just clever rhetoric, but it happens to be true. A new Quinnipiac poll finds that 68 percent of Americans support the relief bill as a whole, and 78 percent support sending $1,400 checks. The latter number includes 64 percent of Republicans, and 37 percent of them said they support the relief bill even though it was presented to them as Biden’s doing.
That’s an important thing for Democrats to appreciate: Even on a hugely popular bill that addresses an urgent crisis, absolutely no Republican cooperation will be forthcoming. After this experience, not even the most nostalgic advocate of bipartisanship could convince themselves that the right amount of compromise or cajoling will secure a bipartisan solution to any of the other many challenges the country faces.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/04/republicans-are-about-prove-depths-their-bad-faith/
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