Mitch McConnell Unloads on Democrats for Playing Politics on Coronavirus Relief Bill

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The Democrats are playing politics with your life and Mitch McConnell is not at all happy about it. He let the Democrats know it, too.

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The bipartisan relief bill in the Senate that was supposed to help the American economy rise back into something akin to normalcy failed to pass after Democrats decided they didn’t like it despite Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreeing to the framework of the bill from the get-go.

The bill contained loans for businesses that needed them to survive as well as relief checks and $100 billion for hospitals, but despite the Democrats getting a bill they helped build, they decided to filibuster the bill and complain that the bill is a bit too lax when it comes to putting rules on corporations.

Rest assured, it has little to do with the bill’s particulars and most everything to do with how their next elections will play out. The goal is to make this a disaster for Trump, and if the Democrats can make it seem like Trump was slow to roll out the help, then with the media’s help, that’s exactly what they’ll do.

McConnell called out the Democrats on Sunday for their childish game playing after the vote failed to pass, despite Democrats working with Republicans to pass it.

“So at a time when the country is crying out for bipartisanship, and we saw that over the last 48 hours when regular members of the senate – not in the leadership office…we were doing just fine before that intervention. So, I want the American people to fully understand what’s going on here.”

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“The markets are already reacting to this outrageous nonsense. We have an obligation to the American people to deal with this emergency and to deal with it tomorrow, and if we don’t I want everybody to fully understand you’ve seen everybody who’s on record,” said McConnell.

“Now, I’ve conspicuously avoided turning this into any kind of partisan effort for two days, but it’s pretty clear what’s going here,” he continued.

McConnell said that the vote will be held again at a time of his choosing.

“Hopefully, some adults will show up on the other side of the room and understand the gravity of the situation and the need to act before the markets go down further and the American people become more depressed about our lack of ability to come together under the most extraordinary of circumstances,” he said.

My colleague, Joe Cunningham, wrote an excellent piece this morning suggesting that our lawmakers should be crafting and passing smaller bills so that there is no excuse to filibuster or vote against a bill that would bring relief to certain parts of the American economy instead of one large bill that can be nitpicked. I agree.

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(READ: The Wuhan Virus Relief Bill Shouldn’t Be One Big Bill)

However, I worry that even during that process, we may see Democrats do what they can to delay certain bills from reaching the floor for any reason. Again, this is about playing politics and hurting the chances of Republicans, specifically Trump, in upcoming elections.

 

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