News and Commentary

New York Times Blames Mitch McConnell For Democrats Blocking Coronavirus Relief Bill

   DailyWire.com
home-delivered copy of The New York Times on a driveway in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Robert Alexander/Getty Images

As I wrote yesterday, Democrats have it good. They blocked a coronavirus relief bill that had been constructed with bipartisan support, knowing that the media would provide them cover. That cover has come especially from The New York Times.

On Monday, in addition to changing its headline to protect Democrats in a way the outlet would never do for Republicans, the Times’ editorial board published its editorial blaming House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – a Republican – for Democrats blocking the $1.8 trillion relief bill. In an editorial titled, “The Coronavirus Bailout Stalled. And It’s Mitch McConnell’s Fault,” the Times claims “Senate Republicans are blocking passage of an economic bailout plan that protects jobs and wages.”

Yes, the Times actually claimed that Republicans blocked the bill.

They list several provisions in the bill that the editorial board – and, coincidentally, Democrats – don’t like, such as providing “a lot of help for corporate executives and shareholders.”

“It would let the Treasury Department hand out hundreds of billions of dollars to corporations — potentially including businesses owned by President Trump — without requiring a binding commitment to preserve jobs and wages. And the bailouts could remain secret for six months,” the Times editorial board wrote.

“Senate Democrats, refusing to play along, blocked the bill in a procedural vote on Sunday night and again on Monday afternoon. But responsibility for the deadlock rests squarely on Mr. McConnell’s shoulders,” board continued.

The Times then laid out the good measures in the bill that help small businesses and American families, but claims “the urgency of the moment does not justify the egregious misuse of public resources.”

As a reminder, the Times’ editorial board was all in on President Barack Obama’s trillion-dollar stimulus back in 2009, even though it provided funds to the president’s donors, friends, and pet projects while failing to help working Americans. We all remember the claim about “shovel-ready jobs” that Obama now flippantly jokes about at speaking engagements.

The Times notes some reasonable objections to the coronavirus relief bill, including a lack of restrictions on big businesses that would receive money from the federal government.

But Democrats blocked a procedural vote on the bill, even though, as McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday, had Democrats voted to advance the bill, it would have been opened to at least 30 hours of debate and edits.

“This obstruction achieves nothing. Nothing whatsoever other than prevent us from getting into a position where there are literally 30 more hours that they could use to continue to dicker,” McConnell said. “So at a time when the country is crying out for bipartisanship and cooperation — and we saw that over the last 48 hours when regular members of Senate, not in the leadership office, not in the speaker’s office for goodness sakes, she’s the Speaker of the House, not the speaker of the Senate. We don’t have one. We were doing just fine until that intervention.”

Also on Monday, the Times changed its headline accurately stating that “Democrats Block Action on $1.8 Trillion Stimulus” to say “Democrats Block Action on Stimulus Plan, Seeking Worker Protections.” The Times further watered down the headline by changing it to read, “Partisan Divide Threatens Deal on Rescue Bill,” before yet another change to “Emergency Economic Rescue Plan in Limbo as Democrats Block Action.”

The editorial board, however, appears to be all in on blaming Republicans for Democrat obstructionism.

So far, the editorial board has not published a similar editorial calling out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for loading up her own version of a coronavirus relief bill with unrelated Democrat policies, such as requiring early voting and offsetting airline emissions.

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