House and Senate Democrats are seizing on President Donald Trump’s support for an increase in the amount of money available to individual taxpayers for coronavirus relief and have pledged to put $2,000 stimulus checks on the Congressional agenda for when legislators return from the holiday break.
“In a video address Tuesday night, Trump called the proposed stimulus checks of $600 included in the economic relief bill that Congress passed Monday ‘ridiculously low’ and said the payments should be more than tripled — a proposal that many Democrats immediately lined up behind,” Fox News reported Wednesday.
As The Daily Wire noted Tuesday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and other House progressives immediately backed the president’s call for a $2,000 individual stimulus check, and Ocasio-Cortez quickly marshaled support from other members of the “Squad.” By late Wednesday night, Ocasio-Cortez and others already had the amendment authored and ready for debate.
Let’s do it. @RashidaTlaib and I already co-wrote the COVID amendment for $2,000 checks, so it’s ready to go.
Glad to see the President is willing to support our legislation.
We can pass $2k checks this week if the Senate GOP agrees to stand down. https://t.co/GprwrUPali pic.twitter.com/nFFs1ExqCK
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 23, 2020
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who negotiated the original stimulus package on behalf of Congressional Democrats, quickly fell in line, despite insisting that the COVID-19 relief deal offered this week was the best Democrats could do.
“At last, the president has agreed to $2,000,” Pelosi wrote on Twitter, ignoring criticism from her party over her unwillingness to ink a better deal for Americans ahead of the presidential election. “Democrats are ready to bring this to the floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) retweeted Ocasio-Cortez’s measure, signaling his own willingness to participate in an effort to triple what Americans would get under the initial coronavirus relief deal that he and others negotiated with Senate Republican leadership.
“I’m in. Whaddya say, Mitch?” he said. “Let’s not get bogged down with ideological offsets and unrelated items and just DO THIS! The American people deserve it.”
Shocked by the sheer amount of spending in both the coronavirus relief package and the associated omnibus spending bill that Congress passed earlier this week, Americans demanded that legislators return to the bargaining table and ink a better deal for individuals suffering because of pandemic-related lockdowns.
The president refused to sign the spending bills in a video address Tuesday night, criticizing the deal for sending just $600 to needy taxpayers. He demanded that Congress return to work and approve an increase or face working through the holiday to pass an acceptable 2021 budget over his veto.
Pelosi was quick to seize on the opportunity, perhaps not just to pass the increase but also to largely rewrite the narrative surrounding the coronavirus relief deal.
“If the President truly wants to join us in $2,000 payments, he should call upon Leader McCarthy to agree to our Unanimous Consent request,” she wrote in a memo to Democrats sent Wednesday in the early hours. “We are scheduled to go in for a pro forma session tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. We are awaiting word from Leader Hoyer as to whether Leader McCarthy will agree to or reject our Unanimous Consent request.”
If Congress acts quickly, a unanimous consent package could pass as early as Thursday morning. Given previous Republican opposition to larger stimulus checks — a similar provision was blocked by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) — it may be the first week of January before an effective proposal comes to the floor.