House Dems pass $3T coronavirus relief package but Republicans will not allow it to become law

Jacob Pramuk
CNBC
Fri, 15 May 2020 09:27 UTC

© Michael Brochstein/Barcroft Media/Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

House Democrats on Friday passed a $3 trillion coronavirus relief package, unprecedented spending Senate Republicans have pledged to block as the major parties struggle to find a path forward on the pandemic response.

The chamber also approved voting by proxy and remote committee work. The rules changes, major moves for a tradition-bound institution, aim to make it easier for representatives to conduct business from outside of Washington during the crisis.

The House passed the rescue legislation in a close 208-199 vote, as Democrats saw defections from both the left and right flanks of the party. Fourteen Democrats voted against the bill and one Republican supported it.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made it clear he has no interest in taking up the proposal. On Thursday, he said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "published an 1,800-page seasonal catalog of left-wing oddities and called it a coronavirus relief bill." The White House threatened to veto the legislation before the House voted.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, has characterized her party's bill as an opening offer in what she hopes will become negotiations with Republicans on another round of fiscal relief. On Friday, she criticized Republicans who said they want to wait to pass more aid.

"Do you think this virus is taking a pause?" she asked. "Do you think that the rent takes a pause? Do you think that putting food on the table or the hunger that comes if you can't takes a pause?"

While the president opposed the Democratic plan, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany indicated this week that he would back another relief bill.

Two administration officials told CNBC that the White House would likely support another round of direct payments — a popular piece of the unprecedented emergency spending law passed in March.

McConnell has called for liability protections for doctors and businesses as part of any future legislation the Senate passes. Democrats have generally criticized such a provision.

After Democrats passed the bill Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office told members not to expect votes next week. The House is set to be in session on May 27 and 28.

The pandemic continues to ravage the country. The U.S. now has more than 1.4 million cases, and the disease has killed more than 86,000 Americans, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

More than 36 million people have filed jobless claims since the crisis started.

Comment: Here's a part of what the bill includes:

• Nearly $1 trillion for cash-strapped state and local governments
• A second round of $1,200 direct payments to individuals, with up to $6,000 per household
• $200 billion for hazard pay for essential workers
• $75 billion for Covid-19 testing efforts
• An extension of the $600 per week federal unemployment insurance benefit through January (it is currently set to go through July)
• $175 billion in rent, mortgage and utility assistance
• A 15% increase in the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit
• Repeal of the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions for two years, which would help certain states' budget crunch but benefit higher-income taxpayers most
• Expanded mail-in ballot access, which Republicans oppose
• Relief funds for the U.S. Postal Service
• $10 billion in emergency small business disaster assistance grants
• Subsidies and a special Affordable Care Act enrollment period for people who lose employer-sponsored health coverage

Newt Gingrich weighed in claiming Pelosi's crazy $3T coronavirus spending bill may have a secret purpose and not to underestimate her. His first reaction:

"It would be dead on arrival in the Senate and the move made no sense. As we learned about the nuttier parts of the bill after it was introduced, it struck me almost as a joke. How do you explain a House Democratic Party so crazy that their new $3 trillion proposal has 68 references to Cannabis and only 52 references to jobs? Maybe Speaker Pelosi of San Francisco believes 'California Dreamin' could become the new national anthem."

There are a remarkable number of impossible-to-explain provisions in the bill. Some of them would:

• Provide money to people in the country illegally.
• Allow illegal immigrants to work when more than 30 million Americans are out of work.
• Provide taxpayer funding for abortion, even though Americans oppose taxpayer funding for abortions by 55 percent to 29 percent.
• Block voter identification laws - even though 80 percent of Americans favor such laws.
• Give state and local governments, which already collect your tax dollars, $1 trillion more of your tax dollars.
• Give a tax cut to the richest Americans in blue states.
• Impose a host of other liberal fantasies on Americans.

Republicans will hate the bill. Independents and moderates will find large parts of the bill totally unacceptable. There will be an entire series of issues in which 75 percent or 85 percent of the country will be deeply opposed to the Pelosi bill. It would probably guarantee a Republican landslide this fall.

After spending days trying to figure out why she would lead her party into such an exposed position, let me offer this three-part proposition:

From Pelosi's perspective, mobilizing the cannabis users and liberal investors is a useful move, too. They are as much part of the Democratic base as traditional small business owners are part of the Republican base.

Arousing the hardcore, pro-abortion activists helps Pelosi with turnout and donations. Disciplined repetition of the word "diversity" appeals to her ideological activists and - to a lesser extent - minority communities.

Appealing to the illegal immigrant community is a useful thing for Pelosi. And Democrats are working to make it possible for illegal immigrants to vote in a number of states.

Giving a tax cut to the richest people in the bluest states is a direct favor to her donor base and helps the public employee unions in those states by making state and local taxes more bearable.

Pouring extra cash into the worst-run blue states with the biggest pension debt (think Illinois and New Jersey) directly helps Pelosi's public employee union allies and the Democratic politicians in those states.

Pelosi's base will be fired up to elect former Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic majorities in the House and Senate so they can get the ideological and financial goodies she has woven into this bill.

See also:

• 'No excuse for this': House Dems' 1,815-page bill would bail out corporate lobbyists and the wealthy as first priorities