Partisan relief

Not a single Republican voted for President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan COVID relief package that narrowly passed the House of Representatives so late on Friday night that Saturday had started. The billions meant for struggling small businesses, states and local governments and those $1,400 checks to millions of Americans is a regrettably a Democrats-only effort.

Expect a similar, distressing, partisan split when the Senate casts its votes.

That party-line divide is remarkable, for multiple reasons. First, polling shows the aid legislation is extremely popular with the majority of Americans. Second, the four earlier COVID aid packages Congress passed, worth trillions of dollars, each enjoyed widespread bipartisan support.

The first bill, the $8.3 billion Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020, passed the House, 415-2 and the Senate, 96-1, in early March 2020. The second bill, a few days later, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, passed the House by 363 to 40, and the

Senate by 90-8. The third, the largest to date, the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, passed the Senate unanimously March 26, and cleared the House in a voice vote. The fourth aid bill, a $900 billion plan President Trump signed into law two days after Christmas, passed the Senate by a 92-6 vote, and the House by a vote of 359-53.

Why the sudden outbreak of partisanship for this fifth aid package? Republican lawmakers say they’re concerned the massive aid package will cause inflation, but even Trump-appointed Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell says that’s not a cause for worry. He told Congress last week that “the economic recovery remains uneven and far from complete, and the path ahead is highly uncertain,” arguing more aid was needed.

Most likely the new spirit of us and them has more to do with the party of the president who’ll get credit for its impact. The American Rescue Plan is the first of the five COVID aid bills that emanated from a Democrat president and Republicans are putting party above country.