If McConnell Thwarts Trump's Plans For A Pandemic Relief Package, Trump Can Thwart McConnell's Reelection Plans

 

2028 by Chip Proser

In her Sunday NY Times column, Maureen Dowd decided it was time to dunk McConnell into the Potomac, pointing out that he appears to have ditched Donald. It's not too late for Trump to cut a spot for Kentucky television endorsing Amy McGrath. She seems to be saying more nice things about Trump these days than McConnell is. And all Trump would have to do is give a signal to voters in backward bastions of Trumpism, hellholes like Jackson, Casey, Monroe, Leslie, Carlisle, Green, Whitley, Bell, Rockcastle, Harlan, Pike, Adair, Knox, Lewis, Allen, Laurel, Butler, Russell, Owsley, Martin, Clinton, McCreary, Crittenden, Lee, Cumberland, Johnson, Pulaski, Clay... all counties where Trump got more than 80% of the vote and is far more popular than McConnell. That would shake up the zeitgeist!





Maybe Trump is angry that McConnell implied he had cooties, but, as Dowd wrote, "McConnell did more than physically distance himself from Trump. He politically distanced himself as well, throwing cold water on the president’s whiplash-inducing reversal on a stimulus bill. After torpedoing negotiations in a tweet on Tuesday because he thought the Democrats wanted too much, the steroid-pumped president did a triple axel and tweeted to Congress to 'Go Big! I would like to see a bigger stimulus package, frankly, than either Democrats or Republicans are offering,' he told Rush Limbaugh in a manic two-hour call on Friday (during which he dropped the F bomb about Iran). I’m going the exact opposite now.' Clearly, McConnell does not want to invest whatever capital he has left in reviving Trump when the guy seems doomed. Why bring up an issue that really divides his Republican members weeks before an election that might be a wipeout-- with the Senate in the balance?"

McConnell is all about winning. He knows a loser when he sees one.

As Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, told The Times Trumpworld is at a dangerous pass: “The knives come out, the donors flee and the candidate throws embarrassing Hail Marys.”

Proving once more that there’s no bottom to how low he’ll go, McConnell explained to reporters in Kentucky that he wasn’t ready to push a stimulus deal because “the situation is kind of murky, and I think the murkiness is a result of the proximity to the election and everybody kind of trying to elbow for political advantage.”

So it’s fine to elbow for political advantage and push to replace R.B.G. with an arch conservative who would threaten health care and abortion rights in proximity to the election. But a bill that would help millions of suffering Americans as the economy goes down the tubes? Nah. That’s too murky.

As for helping the public-- and the economy-- through this phase of the pandemic... McConnell feels he's politically bullet-proof and doesn't care what Trump, the Democrats or anyone else has to say about it. He actually appears to be behaving more irrationally than Trump for a change.

Politico reporters Jake Sherman and Burgess Everett wrote that "a significant and important chunk of Senate Republicans hate everything about the package that Mnuchin is negotiating with Pelosi... Republicans aren’t taking issue with a policy or two, they’re taking issue with the entire package, the number, the scope and the policies. There doesn’t appear to be a middle ground here." The two reporters were blunt in their assessment: If Pelosi and Mnuchin come up with something, McConnell will give it-- and Trump-- the same treatment he's been giving everything that comes out of the House: "at this juncture, it has absolutely no chance of even getting brought up" in the Senate!

On CNN’s State of the Union, drug-addled Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow said he doesn't "think it’s dead at all. I spoke to Secretary Mnuchin last evening. Look, don’t forget-- Republicans in the Senate put up their own bill a few weeks ago and got 53 votes, I think it was… I think if an agreement can be reached they will go along with it."

Earth To Larry!: That bill was $300 billion and was a very heavy lift for GOP leadership. This bill is six times that. That was also a very different time in the life of this virus, Republicans say.

Ya Can't Make It Up! As Republicans freak out about the high price tag, Kudlow says Republicans are willing to go higher than their current offer!!! “He may. He may. Secretary Mnuchin is up to $1.8 trillion. So, the bid and the offer is narrowing somewhat between the two sides. President Trump actually has always said-- I mean, I have heard him say it in the Oval-- as far as the key elements are concerned, the checks, the unemployment assistance, the small business assistance-- we have got to help airlines out-- he would go further. He’s always said that. He knows that we need as much power for economic recovery as possible. It’s not just recovery in three weeks. It’s recovery to the end of the year and beyond in a possible second term. So, I think Secretary Mnuchin, who is a very good negotiator, will be carrying the president’s message.”

By the end of the day, Mnuchin and Meadows (basically, Trump) were calling on Congress to pass a relief bill using leftover funds from the paycheck protection program as negotiations on a more comprehensive package continue. They sent a letter to Pelosi and McConnell demanding that Congress "immediately vote on a bill" that would enable the use of unused Paycheck Protection Program funds while working toward a bigger package. "The all or nothing approach is an unacceptable response to the American people," they wrote.