The Senate left town Thursday with no action on aid that has been an economic lifeline for millions of out-of-work Americans struggling in the pandemic.
WASHINGTON — A crucial week on Capitol Hill that began with a rocky Republican rollout of a coronavirus relief package ended with a complete breakdown in negotiations, threatening to deepen the perils of an already embattled President Donald Trump.
It was a precarious position for Trump, who has gotten low marks in surveys for his handling of a crisis that has devastated Americans — and is about to get worse for many of them. The recent slide has left him trailing Democrat Joe Biden by more than 8 points in the FiveThirtyEight average of national polls.
Republicans sought to vote Thursday on a proposal to cut the benefit to 66 percent of lost wages or to $200 a week. Schumer blocked that, calling it insufficient. When Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., asked for a one-week extension of the existing policy, Schumer dubbed the request a"stunt" that"can't be implemented in time" and called on the Senate to pass the House-approved HEROES Act.
Democrats said Republicans were the ones inflicting political harm on their own party's leader."Beyond being substantively stupid and incredibly cruel, the Republicans are making a massive political error," said Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama."Controlling COVID and rescuing the economy are the best ways to preserve their hold on power, yet they are too focused on helping corporations and hurting people to do what is in their own interest.
McConnell unveiled a $1 trillion package Monday that quickly met resistance from some senators and was pronounced"semi-irrelevant" by Trump the next day. McConnell was forced to denounce a piece of his own plan, which he initially appeared unaware of when asked about it Monday, to spend $1.75 billion on a new FBI building at Trump's request.On Wednesday, Trump floated a short-term extension of jobless aid that gained little support from Republican senators.
"It makes it the pending business for next week, and we can keep talking and hopefully make progress, because no progress is being made anywhere else," he said.
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