Mitch McConnell has budged just a tad on a mini-stimulus bill that includes direct payments, and yesterday CNN reported why.
During the call with GOP senators, McConnell noted that direct payments for individuals and families have become a major issue in the race.
“Kelly and David are getting hammered” on the issue, he said, according to a source who heard his remarks, a reference to incumbent GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are both facing off against Democratic challengers.
However, they’re talking $600 instead of $1,200 this time, which might seem like an insult to people who are months behind on house and utilities payments. There is also talk of $300 additional weekly unemployment benefits, but it’s not clear to me what might happen to people whose benefits are ending entirely. Beyond that, the negotiations are moving so fast, while still going nowhere, that it’s really hard to keep track of what’s in and what’s out.
Also, even if Congress manages to pass something before Christmas, there will almost certainly be a lapse in benefits to millions of workers. Emily Stewart writes for Vox:
After months of a will-they-or-won’t-they dance that’s left workers, businesses, and much of the economy in limbo, lawmakers yet again have a potential deal: a $748 billion proposal to help boost the economy as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on. While it may have some shortcomings — Democrats dropped state and local government aid from the main bill in exchange for Republicans dropping corporate liability protections — it’s not the worst deal in the world, and it does have new payments for the unemployed.
But there is a hiccup: Even if a bill passes, millions of workers will likely face a lag in receiving those payments while the regulators and states responsible for distributing them iron out the new process.
An estimated 4 million workers have likely already had their benefits run out, some of them for months, after they maxed out the number of weekly payments to them established by the CARES Act, the first stimulus package. However long it takes to get a new system up and running is how long they’ll have to wait before they get another check. Other programs expanded by the CARES Act are set to expire in December, and given the bureaucratic intricacies of the 50-state unemployment insurance system, the transition will probably be a messy one.
At this point, whether Congress passes its mini-relief bill or not, there will be massive evictions. There already is hunger, and that’s getting worse. Lots of people are probably going to try to get through the winter with the heat turned off.
But McConnell is only giving in to a bill to help Kelly and David. That’s because their opponents, Raphael and Jon, are running ads like this:
Kelly and David are selling themselves to voters as a “firewall” against “socialism,” Greg Sargent writes. If Mitch keeps control of the Senate, you can bet there will be no more relief/stimulus bills passed next year, no matter how many businesses close for good and how many families end up living in cars and shelters. But, by damn, Kelly and David will keep us all safe from socialists and antifa! Let’s remember what’s important!
Elsewhere
The Week reports that Trump still genuinely believes he won the election.
President Trump was privately coming to terms with his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, but he “has now reversed and dug in deeper — not only spreading misinformation about the election, but ingesting it himself,” CNN reports, “egged on by advisers like Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis who are misleading Trump about the extent of voting irregularities and the prospects of a reversal.” One adviser told CNN, “He’s been fed so much misinformation that I think he actually thinks this thing was stolen from him.”
Even the Electoral College formalizing Biden’s win “did not appear enough to shake Trump from his delusions of victory,” CNN says, “but it is adding urgency to a push by several of his advisers to gently steer Trump toward reality.” Discussions of Trump’s post-presidency future tend to go nowhere because Trump “all but shuts down,” CNN reports. “In his moments of deepest denial, Trump has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day, only to be walked down from that ledge. The possibility has alarmed some aides, but few believe Trump will actually follow through.”
Oh, but it would be so much fun to see him evicted.
A food bank in the Cleveland area.
One adviser told CNN, “He’s been fed so much misinformation that I think he actually thinks this thing was stolen from him.”
Does one expect this bat-shit crazy presidunce to start accepting reality when he has never given it to it before?
If both Dems do not win the Georgia senate runoff elections, this 'stimulus' package may be the highlight of President-Elect Uncle Joe's administration. If both Dems do win the Georgia senate runoff elections, I am yet to be convinced that anything major will be accomplished during the next two years before Nancy 'PayGo' Pelosi follows her historical pattern of losing House seats and control of the House. Demented Diane Feinstein has already said she will vote against eliminating the filibuster and I not be surprised if Manchin is of the same mind. Let a Senate Minority Leader #MoscowMitch have the filibuster with Joe Manchin playing the 2009 role of Joe LIEberman and the rePukes will gut the best parts of anything Uncle Joe tries to accomplish thru legislation.
As bad as this year has been, it would not surprise me that the solstice got canceled and the days just kept getting shorter and shorter. It is a good thing the government has no control over the rotation of the planets around the sun.
It is really hard to get into any sort of seasonal spirit when so many people are in distress. We are just going to have to make the best out of what we have, even if it comes off the bottom shelf at the liquor store.
Limping out the year it will be
with our humble pittance of flaccidity,
Cheers.
Parting favor for Vlad, “Trump remains silent as massive cyber hack poses ‘grave risk’ to government.” Why do you think that is…?
These things don’t just happen. Trump gave away the store.
It's a bunch of bullshit that Trump is the victim of being fed misinformation. Typical Trump tactic to make it appear others are responsible for the chaos and damage caused by Trump's insistence on election fraud. Distortion, lies, misinformation, exaggeration, deceits, and a thousand other negative characteristics are the components of Trump's tradecraft. He knew and he knows he lost the election fair and square and he tried to overpower the legitimate result with his devious bullshit.
So now he's the victim of whistle britches Giuliani and Jenna Ellis' corrupt intentions? Oh, yah. He was lead astray! Anybody with a brain knows that Trump's MO is always to paint any setback or loss he suffers in the color of victimhood. Whoever this advisor is who is feeding CNN about Trump's mental state, he's feeding them a line of shit straight from Trump's playbook.
A good (?) sign:
According to Rachel Maddow's show tonight, there were more people who voted in each of the first three days of early voting in GA this week, than in the first three days of early voting in the general election!
As for Moscow Bitc… Whoops, sorry!
As for Moscow Mitch, to call him evil is just too easy, and too one-dimensional. Saying he's "evil" just doesn't quite cover the scope of the damage this festering malignancy in a business suit has done not just to the US Senate, but to the USA.
He tried his damndest to make Obama a one-term POTUS.
He also blocked everything Obama wanted to do to improve this country.
He kept Merrick Garland from being on SCOTUS. And he held-up Obama's lower level judicial nominations.
And then, at almost every turn, Moscow Mitch enabled tRUMP and his rolling political demolition derby.
I could easily go on and on and on, but the holidays are upon us, and who wants to read my word-turds when there are gifts to purchase, wrap, and gift. (No need to go through any trouble for me! Sending me cash or a check will simplify both of our lives! 😉 )*
One last thought: With historians in the future (if we have one), one of the most interesting things they can debate might be, "Who did more lasting damage to America? tRUMP, or Moscow Mitch?"
*I hope I'm eligible for that $600, 'cause I could sure use it! During this tRUMP Plague, the price of a lot of stuff my Mom and I use went up by a not insignificant amount. Sadly, here in our country, not everything is covered by Medicare, Medicaid, supplemental insurance, or the assisted living facility itself.
With a Democrat taking over the White House, the GOP will be flipping back into "BUT THE DEFICIT!" mode. Preventing Dems from reviving the US economy will be the GOP's top priority for the next four years, and it will be easy for them to block any useful stimulus programs (just as they did through Obama's terms). Without a Green New Deal, US economy will recover, but slowly, and the FIRE sector (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) will suck up most of the gains, leaving working-class Americans with little reason to vote for Dems in 2022 & 2024.
FIRE sector note: Eviction Moratorium has merely postponed the inevitable for unemployed Renters, but it has hit small landlords pretty hard. Many will be selling rental properties, and guess who will buy those? Big institutional "Property Services" companies, backed by Hedge Funds.
You mentioned the impact on small landlords. My stepmother is in that category with a dozen or so properties. The mortgages all have to be paid but no income means she has to pay out of savings or her Social Security. The eviction moratorium hasn't compensated owners for the direct losses.