Pandemic Relief on the Way as VP Kamala Harris Casts First Senate Tie-Breaking Vote
It’s been an interesting couple of days on Capitol Hill. At 5:34 am (East coast time) Vice President Kamala Harris cast the deciding vote on a budget resolution enabling a coronavirus relief package, breaking a 50-50 split.
I suggest you refrain from making any decisions about how your $1400 check from the government will be spent. I’d guess mid-to-late March would be a good target time for final passage.
The House approved a budget measure on Wednesday. The chamber will have to vote again because the Senate passed a separate version.
The budget resolution gives committees the authority to draft legislation reflecting Biden's proposed $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package. It's expected to eventually include $1,400 stimulus checks for most Americans and expanded pandemic unemployment aid.
Thanks to the people of Georgia electing two Democrats to the Senate, the GQP’s grim reaper will not be allowed to block much-needed assistance to individuals, state and local governments, and businesses impacted by the pandemic.
Republicans did come up with a stimulus proposal. The Washington Post graphic embedded below shows what their thinking was:
One thing that didn’t make it through the overnight “vote-a-rama” Senatorial sausage making process was a long overdue increase in the minimum wage.
It will remain at $7.50 per hour until such time as Sen. Bernie Sanders can figure out a way to incorporate it into another budget reconciliation bill or reinsert it into the final bill. Fortunately, the Senator from Vermont is now chair of the Budget committee.
And it is likely that the House version of the relief package will include a minimum wage increase, so the Senate will be revisiting this issue.
https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/1357696829379530758?s=20
It’s ridiculous that we’re even having this conversation about a wage standard unchanged since 2009. The top 1% of Americans have seen their incomes grow at an average rate of $2.5 trillion (with a T) annually since the Reagan administration chose economic policies undoing the post WWII connection between economic growth and wages. “Trickle Down” hasn’t worked, in case you were wondering.
From Inequality.org:
The combined fortune of the nation’s 660 billionaires as of Monday, January 18, 2021 was $4.1 trillion, up 38.6% from their collective net worth of just under $3 trillion on March 18, 2020, the rough start of the pandemic, based on Forbes data compiled in this report by the Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
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Thursday was also a big day at the House of Representatives. All but 11 Republicans chose to back Georgia Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene version of reality. Fortunately, the Democratic majority plus those renegade Republicans prevailed in removing her from committee assignments.
A much ballyhooed moment of contrition by the Congressmember from Georgia was bs. Ms. Greene’s attitude this morning is one big middle finger toward America.
Democrats in the House made it clear yesterday that they weren’t about to put the events of January 6th behind them.
Embedded below are two videos to give readers a feel for the intensity of their comments.
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1357464319806611457?s=20
https://twitter.com/justicedems/status/1357458575971540992?s=20
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