Analysis: The Democratic message for 2020 is that this is the most important election in history. Yet Democrats in Congress have pushed a huge stimulus bill that would give the president’s reelection campaign a major boost.
The Democratic message for 2020 is that this is the most important election in history, that President Donald Trump must be defeated to save democracy and the country, that four more years would be a catastrophe for immigrants, minorities, the poor, the sick and the climate. Yet Democrats in Congress have pushed a huge stimulus bill that would give the president’s reelection campaign a major boost.
Republicans have still said no. The White House negotiating position before Tuesday was that Trump wouldn’t accept anything larger than $1.6 trillion—and it’s never been clear whether Senate Republicans would be willing or able to pass any new stimulus at all.
It certainly isn’t unusual to see Washington paralyzed by partisan strife. It’s just odd to see the partisanship so apparently detached from electoral self-interest.because it’s been hard to square their consistent push for maximum stimulus with their supposedly single-minded determination to defeat Trump.
The Occam’s Razor explanation is that Pelosi truly wants to go big on stimulus. Most Democrats like government stimulus, and Biden’s economists are concerned that if Congress doesn’t go big now, he might inherit a depression if he wins. Democratic insiders point out that Pelosi has also faced intense pressure from unions and other progressive constituencies to go big, especially on state and local aid designed to prevent layoffs of public employees.
As former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau argues: “Democrats are cursed with the responsibility gene.” The Covid relief from the spring has helped prevent a total economic collapse, but unemployment benefits and small-business assistance already began expiring this summer—and Democrats believe that if Biden wins, there’s zero chance that Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate would provide any additional relief after the election.
Still, some Republican operatives are baffled why Trump hasn’t just cut a deal with Pelosi that would let him send checks to grateful voters, boost the economy before the election and reinforce his initialpersona as a businessman who gets things done. He’s never shown any concern about the deficit before; it had doubled even before Covid, thanks to his tax cuts and military spending increases, and it’s now at a record high.
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