Tag: Sen. McConnell

No deal on fresh coronavirus aid package

Rift over size, shape of relief package threatens small-business fund

A partisan stalemate deepened Thursday over the next steps needed in providing coronavirus financial relief.

The impasse derailed an attempt by Senate Republicans to add $251 billion to a dwindling fund for small-business loans, as Democrats pushed for a broader relief effort.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sought unanimous consent for legislation to replenish the loan fund, but Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., objected. Continue reading.

Pelosi, McConnell clash over next coronavirus bill

The Hill logoSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-Ky.) are publicly at odds over a potential fourth coronavirus package.

The two leaders, whose public relationship has been tense in recent weeks, are taking different tactics on follow-up legislation and sparring through the media on next steps to address the devastating economic and health effects of the pandemic.

The mixed messaging, which comes as lawmakers are out of town until at least April 20, underscores the looming challenge of keeping the congressional response to the coronavirus bipartisan. The first three bills passed with overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle. Continue reading.

McConnell says there will be a fourth coronavirus bill

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that there will be a fourth coronavirus bill and that health care should be a top priority as lawmakers draft the legislation.

McConnell, in an interview with The Associated Press, said that “there will be a next measure.”

“[It] should be more a targeted response to what we got wrong and what we didn’t do enough for — and at the top of the list there would have to be the health care part of it,” he said. Continue reading.

Trump’s ambitious infrastructure vision faces Senate GOP roadblock

The Hill logoPresident Trump faces a clash with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-Ky.) and other Senate Republicans over the president’s desire for a $2 trillion infrastructure spending bill, something he promised during his 2016 campaign.

McConnell has criticized Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for proposing a big infrastructure package, saying she wants “to practice what [former Obama White House chief of staff] Rahm Emanuel famously said after the financial crisis in 2008: ‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’ ”

“In other words, seize upon crisis to try to makes systemic or policy changes you couldn’t otherwise pass,” McConnell told “The Guy Benson Show” on Tuesday. Continue reading.

Republicans were warned. Yet they persisted in defending Trump.

Washington Post logoThat notorious cut-up Mitch McConnell got an early jump on April Fools’ Day this year, blaming Democrats for the Trump administration’s failure to prepare for the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“It came up while we were, you know, tied down in the impeachment trial,” the Senate majority leader said Tuesday. “And I think it diverted the attention of the government.”

In addition to implicitly acknowledging that President Trump wasn’t paying attention to the growing danger, it was a curious entry into the blame game for the Kentucky Republican, who recently said this isn’t “a time for partisan bickering.” Continue reading.

Pelosi should ‘stand down’ on passing another rescue bill in House, McConnell says

Washington Post logoOne week after the Senate unanimously passed a $2 trillion emergency relief bill aimed at limiting the financial trauma from the coronavirus pandemic, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he would move slowly on considering any follow-up legislation and would ignore the latest efforts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to jump-start talks.

McConnell’s sweeping dismissal of Pelosi’s urgent call for action underscored the uncertainty and fierce political warfare in Congress as the coronavirus outbreak shuts down much of the nation and throttles the economy, with little consensus on what should follow the biggest rescue package in U.S. history and lingering tensions from those negotiations between McConnell and Pelosi.

“She needs to stand down on the notion that we’re going to go along with taking advantage of the crisis to do things that are unrelated to the crisis,” McConnell said in an interview with The Washington Post, calling the speaker’s recent comments about a fourth round of virus-related legislation “premature.”  Continue reading.

George Conway: McConnell’s ludicrous claim that impeachment distracted officials from coronavirus preparation is ‘gaslighting of the highest order’

AlterNet logoMany critics of President Donald Trump have attributed the United States’ failure to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic back in January and February to the fact that Trump and so many of his sycophants in right-wing media didn’t take it seriously. But when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on fellow Trump supporter Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Tuesday, March 31, he found a way to blame that lack of preparation on Democrats — arguing that they were too obsessed with impeachment to focus on a health crisis. And Never Trump conservative attorney George Conway, in an op-ed for the Washington Post, slams McConnell’s assertion as “gaslighting of the highest order.”

On March 31, Conway asserts, McConnell “added to the disgrace by claiming that impeachment distracted officials from dealing with the coronavirus. Speaking to radio host and Post columnist Hugh Hewitt, McConnell said the virus ‘came up while we were, you know, tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything, every day, was all about impeachment.’”

McConnell’s theory, according to Conway, is ludicrous. Continue reading.

Joe Manchin nails Mitch McConnell: You’re “more concerned about the health of Wall Street”

Sen. Joe Manchin erupts into shouting match with McConnell over Senate Republicans’ coronavirus bailouts

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) called out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Monday for being more concerned with propping up the economy than providing supplies to hospitals fighting the novel coronavirus.

“You can throw all the money at Wall Street you want to,” Manchin said after McConnell blamed Democrats for a stalled stimulus bill. “People are afraid to leave their homes. They’re afraid of the health care. I’ve got workers who don’t have masks. I’ve got health care workers who don’t have gowns.”

“And it looks like we’re worried more about the economy than we are the health care and the wellbeing of the people of America,” the West Virginia senator complained. Continue reading.

How the $2 trillion deal came together — and nearly fell apart

Inside McConnell, Schumer and Mnuchin’s race to rescue the economy.

It was going to cost $1 trillion.

Late on March 16, five days after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic, Larry Kudlow — the one-time cable news talker turned top economic advisor to President Donald Trump — was in the Senate’s historic Mansfield room, telling a group of senior GOP senators something they didn’t want to hear.

The U.S. economy was going to need a lot of help — and fast. Americans faced dire consequences if Congress didn’t act quickly, warned Kudlow, alongside Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and White House Legislative Affairs Director Eric Ueland. The senators were stunned and dismayed. Continue reading.

Sticking points force stimulus package talks to spill into Sunday

The Hill logoSenate negotiators will return to work on Sunday after failing to reach a bipartisan agreement “in principle” Saturday evening on a massive stimulus package, despite reporting significant areas of consensus.

Lawmakers had hoped to finalize a deal on Saturday evening after missing a deadline Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had set for the end of the day Friday.

Instead, negotiators will work to resolve disagreements in several areas ahead of a key procedural vote scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday. Continue reading.