{"id":17008,"date":"2020-12-30T14:09:16","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T22:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=17008"},"modified":"2020-12-30T14:09:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T22:09:18","slug":"mcconnell-objects-as-sanders-senate-democrats-attempt-to-force-vote-on-2000-checks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2020\/12\/30\/mcconnell-objects-as-sanders-senate-democrats-attempt-to-force-vote-on-2000-checks\/","title":{"rendered":"McConnell Objects as Sanders, Senate Democrats Attempt to Force Vote on $2,000 Checks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>December 29, 2020 by <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Common Dreams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Working families need help now. Not next year, now,&#8221; said Sen. Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>by <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/common-dreams-staff\" target=\"_blank\">Common Dreams staff<\/a> (commondreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.commondreams.org\/t\/mcconnell-objects-as-sanders-senate-democrats-demand-vote-on-2-000-checks\/85495\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;77&nbsp;Comments<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/cd_large\/public\/headlines\/mcconnell_26.jpg?itok=E4RVabLx\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) leave after the weekly senate policy lunch on Capitol Hill on December 15, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Tasos Katopodis\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocked efforts by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic lawmakers to advance a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2020\/12\/28\/now-its-senates-turn-all-eyes-mcconnell-after-house-approves-2000-coronavirus-relief\">House-approved measure<\/a>&nbsp;that would provide one-time $2,000 direct payments to most Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) requested unanimous consent for immediate consideration and passage of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dataforprogress.org\/blog\/2020\/12\/28\/78-of-likely-voters-support-2000-relief-checks\">popular<\/a>&nbsp;direct payments, but McConnell objected without comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/index.html?creatorScreenName=commondreams&amp;creatorUserId=14296273&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1343976346645626880&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2020%2F12%2F29%2Fmcconnell-objects-sanders-senate-democrats-attempt-force-vote-2000-checks&amp;siteScreenName=commondreams&amp;siteUserId=14296273&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&amp;width=550px\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the Kentucky Republican&#8217;s objection, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) spoke up to prevent McConnell from moving ahead with Senate business, declaring that it is time for the chamber &#8220;to step up to the plate and do what the working families of this country overwhelmingly want us to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Working families need help now. Not next year, now,&#8221; said the Vermont senator, who has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2020\/12\/29\/no-bluff-sanders-vows-filibuster-military-budget-force-senate-vote-2000-checks\">vowed to filibuster<\/a>&nbsp;the annual military spending bill in an effort to force a vote on the direct payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Sanders requested unanimous consent for a clean up-or-down vote on the $2,000 checks, McConnell objected once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/index.html?creatorScreenName=commondreams&amp;creatorUserId=14296273&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-1&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1343991957228580864&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2020%2F12%2F29%2Fmcconnell-objects-sanders-senate-democrats-attempt-force-vote-2000-checks&amp;siteScreenName=commondreams&amp;siteUserId=14296273&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&amp;width=550px\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) joined his Senate colleagues in demanding that the chamber approve the House-passed measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;People will spend this money,&#8221; Markey said. &#8220;They need it for the necessities that are confronting their families right now.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McConnell&#8217;s objections came shortly after Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/powerpost\/stimulus-checks-senate\/2020\/12\/29\/344fa850-49d9-11eb-839a-cf4ba7b7c48c_story.html\">both expressed support<\/a>&nbsp;for the $2,000 direct payments as they fight for their political lives in runoff contests against Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. The two Democratic challengers&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2020\/12\/23\/600-joke-georgia-democrats-ossoff-and-warnock-embrace-push-2000-stimulus-checks\">endorsed<\/a>&nbsp;the $2,000 payments last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As&nbsp;<em>The Daily Poster<\/em>&#8216;s David Sirota&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyposter.com\/p\/georgians-are-starving-their-millionaire\">pointed out<\/a>, Perdue and Loeffler &#8220;are not saying they will back Sen. Bernie Sanders&#8217; move to force a vote\u2014they are only indicating that they would support the legislation if it somehow happens to make it to the Senate floor.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the tell here\u2014it signals that these two aristocrats still aren&#8217;t serious and that these gestures are fraudulent in comparison to what they could do,&#8221; Sirota added. &#8220;The theatrical performance of Georgia&#8217;s Republican senators pretending to support the initiative while doing nothing to force a vote almost makes you wonder if these two notorious wheeler dealers are quietly day trading on poverty futures.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sanders and Senate Democrats are expected to continue attempting to force a vote on the House-passed legislation in the coming hours and days, if necessary. The bill, known as the CASH Act, would increase the one-time direct payments in the new coronavirus relief law from $600 to $2,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/index.html?creatorScreenName=commondreams&amp;creatorUserId=14296273&amp;dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-2&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1343948480713261056&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2020%2F12%2F29%2Fmcconnell-objects-sanders-senate-democrats-attempt-force-vote-2000-checks&amp;siteScreenName=commondreams&amp;siteUserId=14296273&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&amp;width=550px\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>McConnell&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-12-29\/mcconnell-to-focus-on-bigger-stimulus-with-other-trump-demands\">suggested<\/a>&nbsp;Tuesday that he might attempt to lump together several of President Donald Trump&#8217;s demands, including the $2,000 checks, an investigation into the &#8220;sanctity&#8221; of U.S. elections, and an examination of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Senate Democrats have made clear that they will only accept a vote on the stand-alone measure&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2020\/12\/28\/now-its-senates-turn-all-eyes-mcconnell-after-house-approves-2000-coronavirus-relief\">overwhelmingly passed<\/a>&nbsp;by the House late Monday with bipartisan support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Anything less than a clean vote on the $2,000 payment bill is a deliberate attempt to submarine the payments,&#8221; Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChrisMurphyCT\/status\/1343961775293739010\">tweeted<\/a>&nbsp;Tuesday. &#8220;There&#8217;s four days left in this Congress\u2014there is no way to start from scratch and negotiate a new bill. McConnell knows this.&#8221;Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 29, 2020 by Common Dreams &#8220;Working families need help now. Not next year, now,&#8221; said Sen. Bernie Sanders. by Common Dreams staff (commondreams.org) &nbsp;77&nbsp;Comments Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) leave after the weekly senate policy lunch on Capitol Hill on December 15, 2020&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2020\/12\/30\/mcconnell-objects-as-sanders-senate-democrats-attempt-to-force-vote-on-2000-checks\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17008"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17009,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17008\/revisions\/17009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}