McConnell says Senate Republicans will unveil their proposal early next week.
— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) July 23, 2020
why isn't the press focusing on what a colossal waste of time this COVID aide process was. McConnell didn't want to talk about these issues in may because he knew his caucus was all over the place and it still is today which is why he won't put this up for a vote.
— jim manley (@jamespmanley) July 23, 2020
From Politico — “Republican infighting leads to embarrassing setback on aid”:
Senate Republicans and the White House wasted a week at the worst possible time.
Amid a series of crises — with 30 million Americans unemployed and coronavirus cases spiking nationally — White House officials and Senate GOP leaders couldn’t even come to an agreement among themselves on a starting point for a new relief package, let alone begin bipartisan talks with Democrats.
They clashed over a payroll tax cut, more money for testing, unemployment insurance benefits and a raft of other measures to address the unprecedented economic slowdown. The planned unveiling of a new $1 trillion bill got delayed and delayed again. With Election Day only 103 days away, this is the last thing an embattled president and Senate majority needed to happen…
What’s worse for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — the key players in this drama — was they were supposed to be ready for this moment.
The Senate was coming off a two-week recess, during which time GOP leaders, committee chairs and White House officials privately floated proposals to each other outlining what they wanted for certain elements of their proposal. Republicans and the White House were eager to produce a joint plan that would give them a strong negotiating position heading into a showdown with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
But the White House rejected Senate GOP demands for tens of billions of new spending to beef-up coronavirus testing at the state level, and then “zeroed out” requests for more Pentagon and global health money. The White House also pushed for pet projects including $250 million for renovating the FBI building.
President Donald Trump continued to push for a payroll tax cut, which most Republicans have long opposed, further complicating the situation. Eventually Trump gave in on that one. Again.
Then there was unemployment assistance. With $600-per-week federal payments to millions of newly unemployed Americans expiring by the end of the month, there was urgency to find a compromise.
Yet some Senate Republicans wanted no additional federal support for the out-of-work, saying business owners are complaining that they can’t hire people because the unemployed make more staying home. Other GOP senators wanted scaled-back payments. Still another group wanted to extend the current payments. Republican leaders created a plan that would let individual states tailor their payments, yet the White House rejected that as inadequate.
Despite some last-minute shuttle diplomacy by Meadows and Mnuchin this week, a potential deal fell apart. The delay in releasing the package gave Democrats an easy opportunity to slam Trump and Republican leaders for inaction, and they took it.
“Senate Republicans … have been so divided, so disorganized, so unprepared that they have struggled to even draft a partisan proposal within their own conference,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said…
The GOP’s struggle to coalesce around a negotiating position is only the beginning of a long slog toward getting any kind of deal before Congress leaves for the August recess. McConnell faces divisions within his own caucus over spending, and he has not even begun talks with Pelosi and Schumer.
“That’s unfortunately a pattern we see a lot,” complained Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) coming out of a party lunch on Thursday. “Bills are drafted behind closed doors, and then sprung on the conference at the last minute. I think everyone expected that pattern to be followed here as well.”
The stakes could not be higher for Senate Republicans, with Trump sinking in the polls and GOP control of the Senate in doubt. Yet even as they left for the weekend, the discussions between the Republican leadership and White House were ongoing.
Pelosi and Schumer are pushing for passage of the $3 trillion bill passed by the House known as the Heroes Act. McConnell and White House officials, however, want to see a price tag closer to $1 trillion.
Democrats are also calling for a full extension of the $600 boost in unemployment benefits from the March CARES package, which Republicans argue provides a disincentive to go back to work. Senate Republicans were considering a temporary flat payment for boosted unemployment insurance benefits that would last two months until states adjusted their systems, but it’s not clear that’s where the GOP will end up…
Every single FREEDUMB! Caucusian has their own particular hobbyhorse, and not a one of them is prepared to back down, because after all they don’t have to worry about feeding their kids, or not getting evicted. At least before November.
Mitch McConnell would seem to be doing his best to lose his job, but then again, McConnell works for his donors, not his ostensible constituents…
'Mitch better have my money': Unemployment benefits protest held outside McConnell's homehttps://t.co/xfaMgEVFZG
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) July 23, 2020
for all of his "cocaine mitch" master tactician mythologizing, the fact that mcconnell can't even keep his caucus from publicly pissing on constituents who are going to be voting in a few months really underlines how bad he is at what is ostensibly his job.
— golikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) July 22, 2020
Remember, Repubs, at base it’s all the fault of your very own Dear Leader…
Really smart @seungminkim @rachaelmbade here:
All GOP tension points right now – Senate Rs fighting Trump on covid 5 bill, House conservatives attacking Cheney, fights over who to back in primaries – stems from one thing.
Trump is losing. https://t.co/9INyFJQYi4— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) July 22, 2020
On The Road – frosty – 2020 Coronavirus Road Trip – Part 4: Desert Wildflowers
Villago Delenda Est
They’re really shook. Their bubble is collapsing around them and they have no clue as to how to save themselves from the electoral plague that is Donald.
Jeffro
They have lost their infallible god-emperor…and oh by the way, they haven’t ‘done’ policy in a loooooong time (other that that golden oldie, “the opposite of whatever libs want, updated hourly”)
No. Principles. Whatsoever.
different-church-lady
They didn’t waste a week; they wasted four fucking months because Trump is an asshole and the rest of the party followed him off the cliff instead of forcing him on masks.
Ronno2018
The whole argument about people not wanting to find jobs is insane. No evidence at all. We are in a pandemic, where are the jobs? Idiot rethuglicans.
different-church-lady
Oh, yeah, and Mitch better have my fucking money, because he fucking took it from me when he got his tax reforms.
HumboldtBlue
May I bring this gem from down below upstairs?
Sarah Cooper gets cognitive.
Wag
@Villago Delenda Est:
This
@Jeffro: 
And this
;@different-church-lady:
And this, as well
Jeffro
“Do we spend a shit-ton of money to save ourselves er try and help our fellow Americans?”
“Do we hold back on spending so that we can try once again to beat Dems about the head with the ‘national deficit’ argument when Biden wins DON’T QUOTE ME ON THAT I DIDN’T SAY THAT”
“Do we condition aid on whether or not a state’s schools are fully open and pumping Covid-19 directly into the A/C system?”
“Do we try to funnel aid to states where our Senators that are up for re-election, and hope we don’t get caught out?”
“Can we get him to get the DHS goons to focus on smacking ONLY ‘those people’ around, and not these ‘moms’ I keep hearing about?”
“Has anyone thought about getting Uber Eats to deliver a few um ‘out-of-date’ cheeseburgers to 1600 Pen…wait…forget I said that…”
“McCarthy! You said there’s only two people Putin pays…can he hurry up and pay tr…er…’person #2′ a little more to just do whatever Fauci says for once?? Fer chrissakes…”
So many questions when one has no principles.
Salty Sam
Shadenfraudelcious!
dmsilev
Im just spitballing here, but maybe spending a bit more time in DC doing their ostensible jobs and a bit less time on recess might be in order for the Senate?
HumboldtBlue
@Ronno2018:
Not only that but where is the job I can take being at-risk to the virus?
Kay
Sneak this past amid the chaos? :)
Jeffro
Pelosi has all of their tiny collective balls in a vise, and it’s remarkable to me how long it’s taking them to realize this, much less spin it in any sort of way.
It’s almost like they’re complete fucking morons without any redeeming principles whatsoever. I mean, they’re smarter than trumpov, but that bar is technically underground at this point. Not at all hard to clear.
Jeffro
@Kay: Only thing better would be if they could put all that student loan debt on GOP Senators’ personal credit cards. =)
Wait…even better…turn it into loans from payday lenders, since the they’re so fond of those guys.
Bootstraps, GOP! We’re sure you’ll find a way out from under all that snowballing debt with just a little. bit. more. hard work.
dmsilev
I mean, priorities. It’s far more urgent to confirm a goldbug to a seat on the Federal Reserve Board than to deal with, you know, a historic pandemic and economic crisis.
LesGS
The fucking FBI building!? Really!?
Jeffro
@different-church-lady: Fair enough: they wasted four months. But Donnie wasted six months from when it first hit his PDB.
dmsilev
@LesGS: As I understand it, Trump has had a bug up his ass about that building for the last few years. I don’t remember the specifics, but I believe the fact that his DC hotel is right nearby has something to do with it. In other words, yes corruption. Again.
ok, did a brief search. Here’s a representative story: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/18/658509261/trump-intervened-in-fbi-hq-project-to-protect-his-hotel-democrats-allege
Short version is the plan was to build a new HQ building elsewhere and sell off the land that the old one sits on, but Trump nixed that because he was afraid of competition for his hotel.
Salty Sam
…and there they are, just like Wylie Coyote, suspended for a moment in the air, realizing that it is going to really hurt when gravity finally takes over and they hit the ground at the bottom of the canyon.
mrmoshpotato
Fixed. PAY ME POLITICO!
BruceFromOhio
And they’re in charge. Why remains a mystery.
BruceFromOhio
@mrmoshpotato: oh I like your version much better. Do you have a YouTube channel I can subscribe to?
rikyrah
The Democrats have passed their bill.
The GOP never thought that they would have to propose anything.
They are as phucking delusional as Dolt45.
They thought that COVID-19 wouldn’t hit Red States.
THAT the Red States ‘ economies would Just be going gangbusters, cause ‘Real America ‘ opened back up.
But now, Red States are drowning in COVID-19.
we still don’t have adequate testing
PPE for the medical front lines.
hospitals are being overrun in these states that refused to expand Medicaid.
At every turn, it’s a Democrat trying to save lives while Republicans are killing people.
Robmassing
Help me out here. Why are they taking any recesses? This is a gargantuan, unprecedented crisis. Are they tired from the three-day workweek?
Another Scott
@different-church-lady: +1
All of this GOP theater is just that – theater.
They have no interest in passing much-needed legislation. They’ve sat on hundreds of important bills for months.
They’re not stupid. They know what they’re doing. They have no interest in helping normal people or helping states so that they don’t have to gut their budgets. They’ve said they wanted government small enough to drown in a bathtub, and they’re doing their best to get it right now – before they lose their opportunity.
We have to vote the monsters out.
In other news:
Good, good.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Yesssssss???
rikyrah
We are at 4,000,000 cases of COVID-19.
We were at 3,000,000 just 16 days ago ??????
Kelly
One of our boys has been collecting unemployment with $600 Covid bump up. He was laid off from a small business that is completely dependent on the schools opening. I do not expect the business to survive the plague. He’s a hard worker but there are not many jobs out there just now.
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue: “Cognitively there!”
Christ Almighty.
rikyrah
@Villago Delenda Est:
They decided to back Dolt45. Now he is hung on them like an anchor.
Another Scott
Bring the fire, Rep. Beyer.
(He’s been warning for weeks that the deadline wasn’t 7/30, it was around today because of the various calendars.)
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
52 million have filed unemployment since the pandemic hit.
if they were concentrated in Blue states, I am sure that Moscow Mitch wouldn’t do shyt. But, that 52 million is around the country, in red states too. And, it’s long enough for people to be in real pain and blame the GOP.
They tried the bullshyt ‘open up the economy ‘
Phucking states are now drowning in the virus.
frosty
@HumboldtBlue: OMG!!! I knew I could count on Sarah. The picture of Putin with the hearts was the kicker. Also, Sarah as the listener following along on the five words.
I wish I was as cognitively there as our President. //
frosty
@different-church-lady: Bring it! I’ve been enjoying your comments more and more. Even when they’re NOT IN ALL CAPS!!!!
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro:
Soviet shitpile mobster conman probably wasted more than that. We’ll never know when Hillary would’ve proactively started working on this.
Benw
@rikyrah: just preach it, sister
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@HumboldtBlue: how many times do you think trump watches, those, and then calls one of his “friends” to whine about it (I’m picturing Bob Kraft with the phone in his lap going “Mmm-hmmm, mm-hmmm. you’re right Mr President” while he’s watching a Frasier rerun, or Melissa Rivers propping it up by Joan’s urn). “It’s very unfair, that girl in the videos, cause it’s not funny. All she’s doing is saying my words, so if it’s funny, I’m the one who’s funny, but they all talk about her…”
mrmoshpotato
@BruceFromOhio: I have an account, so I technically have a channel. But it has no videos. ?
Highway Rob
Since this is an open thread, I’ll drop this question here in case anyone’s seen discussion of it. I’ve got a couple of kids in very early grades. With all the discussion of whether, when and how to reopen schools, it’s as though the novel coronavirus is the only microbe out there. My bundles of joy bring home bugs by the bushel in normal times, so I assume there is not only about to be increased risk of COVID but of common colds and eventually the flu.
Now, there’s no way in hell I’m some kind of public health savant who has sussed out a problem that hasn’t occurred to the experts. But, I haven’t heard what’s being done to prepare for all the various sniffles and congestions that’ll make parents think “OMG the ‘Rona!” and clog teladoc lines and probably doctors’ offices and maybe even ERs. Anybody got a link on this issue so I can reassure myself that smarter minds have got this covered, or are at least attempting to do so?
opiejeanne
@Jeffro:
“the opposite of whatever libs want, updated hourly”)
I got an URGENT email today from some guy running for governor of WA, and his spiel about what he is for is only about what he’s against, and his biggest beef is Olympia. The politicians in Olympia don’t understand the PEEPUL, blah blah UHMERICUH! etc.
And he wants us to send him to… Olympia.
I sent him a note pointing out the irony in wanting us to send him to that evil place called Olympia. I also told him that I’m an EX-Republican, and I voted for Inslee.
I should have yelled DEL BENE! yesterday at the guy next to us stopped at the light who was blaring The Cars’ “Who’s Gonna Drive You Home?” with his big campaign banner taped on the side of his vehicle. What’s worse is that I figured with the musical choice and not being able to see much of the face there was so much hair, that I thought it must be his wife. Then I googled him and it was him in the driver’s seat. Sorry, I realize this is both elitist and lookist, but damn!
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah:
BUT ISN’T RAND PAUL A DOCTOR?!?!
ETA – gangbusters, hehe :)
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: 10 million by Labor Day.
Easy.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: Anchor of albatrosses. :)
Fuck ’em!
Elizabelle
@Highway Rob: That’s an excellent point.
Cuz everytime any of us gets a strong headache it’s like, oh no. Is this the ‘rona?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Brian Williams meant to show a trump ad that ‘some people are calling very effective’, and he accidentally showed this one, or maybe, just maybe, someone on his staff not-so-accidentally slipped this one into the show (I hope so)
rikyrah
54 hospitals in Florida out of hospital beds
Uncle Omar
@Highway Rob: @#39
You are pretty much on your own. I think parents have thought about this, but I haven’t seen any indication that any gov’t/public health officials have. Hell, every time we turn on the swamp cooler my throat tightens up and I do the Covid shuffle until I remember that every time it goes on every year I have/had exactly the same physical reaction. Whenever I see a cottonwood puff floating by in the breeze I sneeze–and freak out. All of that being said, I’m not the paranoid one in our household.
To answer your question, about all we can do is hope that someone, somewhere is tending the light at the end of this particular tunnel, but I’m not counting on it.
frosty
@Highway Rob: I think I saw an article from Australia that the flu and colds have been almost non-existent this (southern) winter because of COVID precautions. If everyone is masking, keeping their distance, and hand washing it makes sense to me.
But I agree with your overall take. When my kids were little it seems like I had a constant cold all winter.
Another Scott
@Highway Rob: I saw noises that the flu has been knocked back in the southern hemisphere because so many people are wearing masks.
E.g. https://khn.org/morning-breakout/first-edition-july-23-2020/
Actions we take affect the course of many diseases.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: BWHAHAHAHA!!!!
And how did he apologize for that mistake?
Highway Rob
@frosty: @Another Scott: Let’s hope.
(XKCD had made a similar point a while back that I’d forgotten about. Link.)
Elizabelle
This was fun. From the Colbert show.
Youtube. Karen, Karen, Karen … please wear a mask. To the tune of Dolly Parton’s Jolene.
You get past Wolf Blitzer at 15 seconds in.
Elvis Nightingale, Esq. (frmly Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn)
@HumboldtBlue: Erma Gurd, I love The Usual Suspects (given the mandatory “Spacey is despicable” caveat), so this “Verbal Kint-ing” of Trump really got me LOLling about my couch (as one does?).
She even got it down to how the clues were there all along, just waiting to get strung together. Brilliant!
And, yes, her vidz are the *only* way I can stand to hear the fascist yam’s voice for more than 5 seconds.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
????
HumboldtBlue
My father recently underwent brain surgery after a fall. I challenged him that he couldn’t match Trump’s cognitive genius in a family thread.
He just responded:
I love my dad.
ballerat
@LesGS:
It’s a quarter billion dollar donative, to buy the Feebs’ goodwill and loyalty. And a downpayment on some favors to be asked in return, natch.
different-church-lady
@Another Scott: I wish I were +1. I have been abstaining the past few days because maybe I am drinking too much during THE FUCKING PANDEMIC and I want to make sure I don’t slip off the edge.
ballerat
@ballerat: Perhaps a positive interpretation is, the FBI is not yet behind Trump, which is why he’s trying to bribe them with a quarter bil.
No idea if they can be bought. They are political though. They can’t just do their jobs. Just look at Comey.
mrmoshpotato
@Highway Rob: “make you feel gross now and then”
LOL Randall never disappoints.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: It was great.
I gotta say, I never saw any of this coming. The anti-mask militance.
HumboldtBlue
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Nah, that’s when he pulls his “I’m a Hollywood talent guy and she’s terrible” and just turns it off. He’s too weak to watch any of ’em.
Kelly
Portland protester sign:
https://twitter.com/ByMikeBaker/status/1286518425703964672/photo/4
ballerat
@HumboldtBlue: I suspect if you have the cognitive ability to employ mnemonics, you have the cognitive ability they’re looking for.
Glad for you and your dad.
TriassicSands
It’s likely that no matter how much time they spend bickering, the agreement will always come at the last minute — or after the last minute. So, spending more time in session may not really accomplish anything.
The House, under Pelosi, can govern. The Senate, under McConnell, can only obstruct, flounder, and pass tax cuts for the wealthy.
TriassicSands
Oh, that’s an easy one. Because the only things dumber than a Republican senator (or representative) are the voters who elected them.
Alison Rose
Ahem.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.
JFC. What in the damn hell is wrong with these fucking monsters.
J R in WV
@Robmassing:
Rob, think for just a moment, please~!~ These are politicians with AN ELECTION coming up in nearly no time. They have to go home and start to campaign, and solicit donations, and accept gratuities at giant parties where Covid-19 will spread.
There’s a lot of upside potential in those parties, brother!!!
TriassicSands
@Alison Rose:
Getting sick and dying (or killing a relative) is also a disincentive to go back to work. But what kind of people are we that we aren’t willing to die for the World’s Foremost Authority on Everything?
Alison Rose
@TriassicSands:
Well, apparently that makes us all the GOP, since those fuckers sure aren’t putting their old white asses on the line.
But seriously. They’re so clearly telegraphing that they do not give a damn if people die. And yet people will still vote for them. Because they hate the queers and brown people that much.
mrmoshpotato
@Alison Rose:
They’re monsters.
And these are penguins – and a murderbird.
J R in WV
@mrmoshpotato:
Actually, Hillary would not have thrown out the Bush-Obama pandemic planning documents, nor fired the CDC teams in China, nor ignored medical advice back in December when the Chinese assigned CDC teams would have reported early news of a new pandemic starting.
Trump and his minions walked all that back, fired people who could have saved lives starting on day one.
mrmoshpotato
@J R in WV:
Yes, yes and yes.
J R in WV
@TriassicSands:
This must be related to the law of discovery physics that says you always find that missing tool in the very LAST place you look for it in… right?
NotMax
“Landru, guide us!”
//
Elizabelle
@mrmoshpotato: Those penguins look like they’re doing softshoe for a moment.
I like them better than their ancient relative.
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle: Ancient relative? Godzilla-sized penguin?
frosty
@Highway Rob: As usual, XKCD nails it.
frosty
@different-church-lady: Good plan.
frosty +5
frosty
@Elizabelle: There was an Anti-Mask League in San Francisco in 1918. We never learn.
TriassicSands
@J R in WV:
Well, the Republicans don’t actually have a clue about what “tool” they’re looking for. They’ll just grab what’s available at the last second. Unless we’re talking tax cuts for the rich. They always know where that “tool” is — it’s right next to the tool that cuts SNAP and the rest of the social safety net.
TriassicSands
That’s part of it, but they also don’t believe they will die — it will be other people and they don’t care about other people.
Republicans lack empathy, which goes hand-in-hand with a lack of imagination. That may be why it comes as a shock to them if the unimaginable happens — the loss of a job and/or health insurance, or an unexpected major health problem.
If it doesn’t happen to them, it isn’t a problem.
Jack Canuck
@frosty:
Might be a dead thread, but you’re right about this. I saw an article on the ABC in the last couple of days saying that flu deaths are normally somewhere over 400 in Australia by this point in the year, but we’re only at 36 or so this year.
rikyrah
@J R in WV:
TRUTH???
lowtechcyclist
The Dems need to be running commercials about this – that the GOP can’t be trusted to organize a two-car funeral at this point, that no help is coming because the Republicans controlling the White House and Senate can’t even come up with a rescue plan that they can agree on amongst themselves, let alone work something out with the Democrats, who passed their rescue plan two months ago.
SFAW
@Highway Rob:
I think Randall Munroe should get a Nobel for … something. Not sure what, but he deserves it.
Ken
@J R in WV: They may think they’re going home to campaign, but I’ll bet a lot of them will end up hiding from protestors and avoiding the media.