Congress

McConnell Cancels Votes On His Own Stimulus Proposal

Written by SK Ashby

As recently as yesterday evening, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was reportedly planning to force a series of votes on his stimulus proposal this week including the massive cut to the pandemic unemployment program.

Politico reported this morning that McConnell canceled his plans last night after a Republican party meeting and now it looks like there may not be any votes this week.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has also threatened to force votes this week on GOP proposals addressing unemployment insurance. But following a GOP leadership meeting on Monday night, Republicans made no decision to move forward with that vote, or any other Senate GOP proposal.

“I think we’ll see as the discussions go on this week where the consensus forms, and at this point there haven’t been any decisions made on what we will vote on,” said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) after the meeting.

I believe we can infer that McConnell canceled his votes because he was not going to get even 50 Republican votes for it, much less 60 votes that would have to include Democrats.

McConnell's first attempt to pass his proposal was not unanimous among Republicans even though it cuts the pandemic unemployment program from $600 to $200 per week. That level is unacceptable to Democrats because it's far too little, but it's unacceptable to some Republicans because they believe $200 is still too much. Some Republicans do not believe the pandemic unemployment program should exist at all. Some Senate Republicans are also opposed to additional funding for schools.

It's difficult to see how McConnell is going to unite his caucus around any proposal when a significant number of them are ideologically opposed to doing anything.

Republicans are incapable of governing and you should never vote for them. The Trump White House directly negotiated with Democratic leaders more often than not even when Republicans controlled both chamber of Congress because Republicans are not a governing party. They're a permanent opposition party and the opposition is whatever is in the best interest of a majority of Americans.

The Senate is scheduled to enter recesses for the remainder of August at the end the week and no decisions have been made yet as of this writing on canceling or delaying their recess.