It’s sink or stim
House poised for $1.9T bill vote
Democratic leaders are cheering the imminent final passage of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill, with the White House calling it the “most progressive” bill in US history and Republicans using the same claim to bash it.
The partisan posturing is shaping up ahead of anticipated approval in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
“Sen. [Joe] Manchin and Sen. [Bernie] Sanders and a range of Democrats in between just voted to support a $1.9 trillion package that is the most progressive piece of legislation in history. So, I would say we feel pretty good about that,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her daily press briefing.
It would be Biden’s first major legislative achievement as president barring last-minute surprises such as a possible left-wing revolt over watered-down provisions approved Saturday by the Senate.
Republicans say the bill is bloated and likely to spur inflation, but some of the most fiercely attacked items were removed in the Senate, such as a gradual increase of the hourly national minimum wage to $15 and $140 million for a rail project near House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s California district.
But many conservative-derided provisions remained and it won no GOP votes in the Senate after Republicans uniformly opposed the earlier version in the House.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Monday on Fox News that “if you’re in the farming business right now, this bill forgives 120 percent of your loan based on your race. These people in the Congress today, the House and the Senate on the Democratic side are out-ofcontrol liberals and God help us all if we don’t check and balance them in 2022.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said just 9 percent of the funds are directly related to the pandemic, echoing a consistent GOP objection.
The bill grants $1,400 stimulus checks to adults who earn up to $75,000 per year, with smaller amounts for earners under $80,000. An extra $1,400 check is awarded for each dependent child, and parents gain a new annual tax credit of $3,000-$3,600 per child.
In the Senate version of the bill, stimulus checks were eliminated for individuals who earn between $80,000 and $100,000 per year and a weekly federal unemployment supplement was slashed from $400 in the House version to $300.
The bill faces a final phase of uncertainty as left-wing Democrats in the House grumble about the Senate’s changes. The bill previously passed the House 219-212 with two Democrats in opposition, meaning even a few Democratic defectors could trigger problems.
Psaki said Monday that the White House is continuing to pressure House members ahead of the Tuesday vote.
“We are at the ready — everybody’s on call whenever they’re needed and that certainly applies to the president,” Psaki said.
[Democrats] voted to support a $1.9 trillion package that is the most progressive piece of legislation in history. — White House press secretary Jen Psaki, on the stimulus bill