No, Not "Both Parties" Fault-- The Blame From The Entire Financial Crisis Millions Of Americans are Facing is Only The Republicans' Fault-- 100%

In his interview with Stuart Stevens published yesterday by the New Yorker-- on the occasion of the release of his new book, It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump-- Isaac Chotiner asked the former GOP political operative (and now, Lincoln Project #NeverTrumpers), how he came to see that the Republican Party wasn't polluted by Trump but that the Republican Party was polluted by itself. Stevens now understands that Trump didn't hijack the GOP but that what we have is what the GOP turned itself into. He pointed out that Trump "says he has ninety-five per cent Republican approval, and that’s probably an exaggeration, but let’s say it is eighty-nine per cent or so. You look at what Trump is saying, and the degree to which the Party is comfortable with it, and I don’t know what conclusion to come to other than that Trump very well suits the Republican Party... What appealed to me was a party that believed in personal responsibility, that character counts, and that was strong on Russia and free trade, and strongly pro legal immigration. It’s not just that the Party has drifted away from those principles, like parties do. As far as I can tell, the Party is actively against every one of them. We’re the “character doesn’t count” party. We’re the anti-personal-responsibility party. We’re the pro-Putin party. I think the only conclusion is that a party that said it believed in these things didn’t really believe in them."

Just before that was published published, the Washington Post put out an ominous piece by Erica Werner and Seung Min Kim, Congress flails as coronavirus ravages the nation and the economy stalls. Their point-- everything is a disaster and the Republican-controlled Senate, at Trump's direction, "is doing what it does best: nothing at all."

Two months ago, the House passed a bill that would have helped people get through these extraordinarily tough times. McConnell went on vacation and refused to allow even a debate on the merits. As the virus surged and the economy collapsed McConnell plotted how to make the Democrats look bad. Polling shows that that has backfired, making the GOP even more unpopular and putting more of his caucus in jeopardy for November defeats.


"Let's be clear about what's happening here," progressive Texas Democrat Julie Oliver told me this morning. "The House passed the Democratic relief bill, the HEROES Act, weeks ago-- it would have extended the $600 unemployment insurance that has served as a lifeline for so many of the Texas families we've heard from here in our district who are hurting right now. Roger Williams voted against it. He believes that Texans who are struggling should get 'zero' in relief. Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans refused to take the bill up for consideration. And that negligence-- while people are losing everything, going hungry, kids and families facing eviction-- is truly corrupt." You can help Julie replace Williams here.

“The Republicans are pushing the American economy into a depression because they are unwilling to do what is necessary to prevent it,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI). “This is not the fault of ‘Congress’ generally-- this is happening to America because of the Republicans. We want to strike a compromise, but their ideology prevents them from meeting the moment.”

...“Congress has to rise to the crisis. It is too serious,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), one of at least a half dozen endangered GOP senators whose political fortunes are in the balance. “If we can’t work together in a bipartisan, bicameral way in the midst of a persistent pandemic that is causing such harm to people’s health and their economic stability, then we will have failed the American people.”

Democrats and many Republicans insist it is imperative to act soon to pass another big relief bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called the virus “a freight train that is picking up steam and picking up speed” Friday as she called for Senate passage of the House Democrats’ $3 trillion bill. Talks are ongoing between congressional Democrats and top Trump administration officials, and many people involved think they will manage to produce some kind of agreement in the next couple weeks.

But Republicans are divided between those like Collins who support aggressive new action and a significant minority of GOP lawmakers who think Congress has done its job and should not spend any more money at all to pile on the deficit.

President Trump’s weakening standing in the polls means there is less imperative for reluctant fiscal conservatives to rally around legislation that might help his political fortunes. The president himself has also reduced the sense of urgency for some in his party by embracing unlikely hopes that the economy can heal itself by reopening, or that the virus will disappear on its own.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) waited months over the late spring and summer to act, saying he wanted to see what impact the programs already approved were having before agreeing to anything more. During that time the virus itself frustrated widespread hopes that the situation might improve and began to surge in states that had reopened too aggressively.

McConnell finally released a $1 trillion bill last Monday as the GOP’s answer to the much larger bill passed by House Democrats in May, but he struggled to get consensus within his party and with the Trump administration, including complaints from members of his own conference about everything from the price tag to a new round of stimulus checks.

Facing a deadline Friday for $600 weekly emergency unemployment benefits to expire for nearly 30 million Americans, Republicans quickly started to pivot to talking about a short-term unemployment insurance fix, rendering their own bill all but irrelevant in a matter of days-- with Trump himself dismissing it as “sort of semi-irrelevant” the day after it was released.

Democrats have consistently rejected the notion of a short-term fix, and in face of the GOP’s disunity they have shown little willingness to compromise on their push for the most generous relief bill possible, with an array of provisions that Republicans reject, such as $1 trillion in new aid for cities and states. Republicans say they do not think Democrats want to pass anything at all because they’d rather have a political issue; Democrats angrily reject that accusation.

After 3-1/2 years of rancor under the Trump administration, there is little trust left between the two parties, and no direct communication at all between Trump and Pelosi.

The result is stasis.

“In order to cut deals and find compromise in this hyperpartisan political environment you have to have at least a small amount of trust in each other,” said Jim Manley, who was a top aide to former Senate Democratic leader Harry M. Reid of Nevada. “The problem right now is that no one trusts their colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”

Congress rarely acts except when up against a deadline, and stopgap spending bills and partial government shutdowns have become almost routine in recent years, as Congress repeatedly offers fresh proof of its own dysfunction. As economically harmful as a government shutdown is, however, it is nothing compared with the coronavirus, which has already killed more than 150,000 Americans while simultaneously clobbering the economy. Gross domestic product dropped 9.5 percent in the second quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Thursday-- a decline that would have been even worse without the economic aid provided by Congress.

Multiple lawmakers of both parties have said the only really comparable situation is a war. Yet with the two sides so far apart on multiple issues, the prospect of failing to get any deal at all is a real possibility.

“I don’t even want to fathom that, it’s unimaginable that we wouldn’t, given the needs that the country has,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). “It would just be so bad if we didn’t that ultimately you would hope that... the fever would break.”

...McConnell coordinates closely with Mnuchin and Meadows, but his posture of remove puts the onus on the Trump administration to sell any deal made with Democrats to GOP members of Congress. Republicans have been unhappy with some of the deals Mnuchin struck with Democrats early on, including the unemployment insurance payments that have now expired. Most Republicans want to extend them, but at a greatly reduced level, while Democrats want to continue the $600 weekly payments at their present level.

The two parties spent much of the past week blaming each other for allowing the payments to expire.

In the first sign of progress after days of stalemate, a meeting at the Capitol Saturday between Pelosi, Schumer, Meadows and Mnuchin yielded guardedly positive comments from all involved-- although a deal did not appear imminent.

Despite the current chaos and uncertainty, Congress may ultimately find its way through to making another deal to help revive the economy and help Americans. But even as the virus rages and the economy teeters, the rancor shows every sign of getting worse before it gets better.

“Our politics is such that there must be significant political pain before hard things can get done,” said Brendan Buck, who was a top adviser to former Republican House speaker Paul D. Ryan. “That’s our forcing mechanism, and the political pain will be starting very soon.”

Adam Christensen is running for Congress in north-central Florida, for the seat teabagger Ted Yoho is abandoning. He told me this morning that "The Florida GOP knew exactly what they were doing when they ok’d one of the largest corporate giveaways in history right before a pandemic. They knew what they were doing when they built one of the worst unemployment websites in the country after 2008. They knew what they were doing when they made sure that Florida had one of the lowest unemployment benefit payouts in the country. They knew what they were doing when they muddied the waters with the shut downs, masks, and basic public safety. And my representative, Ted Yoho, knew what he was doing when he voted for the biggest companies in the world 100% of the time he was in Congress. The response to this pandemic and conditions that made it worse were not an accident. The response was purposeful. They had planned and implemented these policies for years. Now all of us are facing the consequences for their actions."