Democrats are moving ahead without Republicans on Covid relief
Democrats are moving now to fast-track a Covid relief package.
If Republicans want to come along, great. Democrats are arguing Republicans can vote for budget reconciliation. If Republicans don’t like the plan, they can keep talking to the White House, but the underlying takeaway from the meeting on Monday night — and all the messages from the White House in the days before that — is the President is only willing to negotiate so much. Republicans’ $618 billion proposal with no state and local funding is not going to cut it. Period.
Bottom line: President Joe Biden has the House. Biden has the Senate. He has a procedural process that gives him the chance to pass a $1.9 trillion relief package with just Democratic votes and conveniently, it’s a process that Republicans used just four years ago to jam through a tax plan and try to repeal Obamacare.