Is this totally unusual? No. This is part of Politics 101. But, one shouldn’t get caught saying it, certainly not when your party is blocking legislation that helps people who are in a bad way, and not for the crazy things that Democrats want, things that are completely unrelated.
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) admitted that she and her progressive colleagues have been blocking legislation aimed at providing relief to small business workers in order to hold on to political leverage.
The congresswoman made the comments during a virtual news conference Monday with fellow progressive lawmakers and activists, in which they pushed for illegal immigrants to be included in the next round of coronavirus relief, among other Congressional Progressive Caucus priorities.
“We don’t know what’s in the package yet, we only know what’s been reported,” Jayapal said during the #PutPeopleFirst conference. “But I think what you’re hearing from all of us on the call is that we have real concerns about giving away leverage now without getting some of the priorities we need.”
One leading House Democrat came right out and said they've been blocking urgent money for workers' paychecks because they don't want to give up political leverage. Think about that: Democrats would rather use workers as partisan leverage than actually help them. pic.twitter.com/1Lve1xutb2
— Senate Republican Communications Center (@SRCC) April 21, 2020
Democrats refused to act for 12 days
In a statement regarding the deal, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated that Democratic leaders finally abandoned a number of their “unrelated demands” during the final stages of negotiations, but lamented that they took 12 days to do so and at the expense of so many American workers.
And the House is looking to vote. Finally
(NY Times) After failing to approve a measure that would have allowed members of the House to vote remotely, lawmakers are gathering in Washington today to vote on a $484 billion coronavirus package that would revive a depleted loan program for distressed small businesses and provide funds for hospitals and coronavirus testing.
Will Jaypal and her Squad members vote for it? How many Dems will vote in favor? Will they try to jam some of their crazy, unrelated ideas in at the last moment? The Times doesn’t even wonder. They go right into the next paragraph
But it will not provide money for state governments, even as governors across the country have had to divert resources to fight the virus while watching their revenue streams fall off a cliff.
With commerce ground to a halt, sales taxes — the biggest source of money for most states — have plummeted. Personal income taxes, usually states’ second-biggest revenue source, started falling in March, when millions lost their paychecks and tax withholdings stopped.
Might that be a good reason to slowly start opening things back up?
Teach why are you omitting the important fact that the money allocated by Congress and administer by the White House has all gone to big companies not small businesses?
The death total of Americans is now over 47,000 but you still find some humor in calling Covid by the cartoonish name. Is that for political purposes despite the suffering. Do you also find it funny that 10,000 in nursing homes have died ?
Show some respect for the dead and their families