By: Ian Millhiser; Vox
In just over three weeks, Donald Trump will no longer be president, but he’s spent his last month in office sowing discord. His latest chaos muppetry — a demand that Congress increase the latest round of stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000 — has now given Democrats a slim chance to deliver more aid to Americans. And, barring that, a chance to make Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s life more difficult.
After the House on Monday passed a bill increasing the “economic impact payments” — in other words, stimulus checks — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is continuing the fight.
Sanders, with support from the Senate Democratic caucus, plans to use a series of procedural moves to delay a vote on a bipartisan defense authorization bill. These maneuvers can’t prevent the defense bill from becoming law, but that’s not really the point. The bill is considered a must-pass, and Sanders’s objections can delay passage, annoy Senate Republicans, and potentially force Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to raise a series of objections that could damage his party’s ability to hold onto its Senate majority.
And Sanders also has a clear demand: He will lift his objections to an immediate vote on the defense bill if McConnell permits a vote on legislation providing $2,000 checks to Americans earning less than $75,000 a year.
The first round of this fight played out shortly after noon Tuesday on the Senate floor, during an exchange between McConnell, Sanders, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). McConnell sought a vote on the defense bill, and Sanders objected unless the Senate immediately holds an up or down vote on the $2,000 payments.
The politics of this fight favor Democrats. A recent Data for Progress poll shows that 78 percent of likely voters support the $2,000 direct payment. Trump himself backs it as well; he continues to tweet his support for $2,000 checks. On Monday, the House voted in favor of $2,000 checks, with 44 Republicans joining nearly every Democrat in favoring the legislation.
And all of this is happening as Republicans fight to hold onto two Senate seats in Georgia, a state that recently voted for Democratic President-elect Joe Biden — two seats, it’s worth noting, that will decide who controls the Senate in 2021.
If Sanders’s gambit fails, it wouldn’t be the first time that very popular legislation died in Mitch McConnell’s Senate. And McConnell still has ways out; he suggested Tuesday he could tie proposals unfavorable to Democrats to the increased stimulus checks, in order to make the entire proposition more unpalatable.
But the strange mix of circumstances that brought us to the point gives Democrats a small chance to make the $2,000 checks a reality.
