After earlier offering a poison-pill version of a bill to increase relief checks, Senator Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday that there was “no realistic path” to quickly pass any such bill.
“The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats’ rich friends who don’t need the help,” McConnell said.
The Democrats passed a stand-alone bill in the House to increase the checks, but McConnell has refused to allow the Senate to vote on it. And McConnell’s poison-pill bill was immediately condemned by Senate Democrats as exactly what it was – a ploy.
Since both Senators Loeffler and Perdue, who are in tight races in the Georgia run-offs, have said they would support the Democrats’ bill, it appears the bill might have the votes to pass. But McConnell continues to insist on not voting on it.
Senator Bernie Sanders has said he will continue objecting to the vote to override President Trump’s veto of the defense spending bill until McConnell allows a vote on the checks bill, thus keeping the Senate in Washington through the holiday. It remains to be seen whether this is enough of a threat to work.
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