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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday blasted the House bill increasing stimulus payments to $ 2,000, which President Trump pushed alongside Democratic leaders, saying he was not not sufficiently targeted.

McConnell argued that giving $ 2,000 checks to high-income households that have not suffered a job loss is “socialism for the rich” … “a terrible way to help American families who are in reality in difficulty. ”

Meanwhile, Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer has called on the Senate to revert to the bill passed by the House to increase stimulus checks to $ 2,000, but McConnell opposed it.

“I will once again seek consent for the Senate to set a time for a vote on the House bill to deliver checks for $ 2,000 to the American people,” Schumer said.

Schumer argued that the Senate should pass the House bill to increase stimulus checks to $ 2,000, saying, “There is one way and only one way to spend $ 2,000 checks before the end of. year and it’s to pass the House bill … Either the Senate takes and passes the House bill or struggling Americans won’t get $ 2,000 checks during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

“The Republican leader has invented an excuse to prevent a clean vote, upward or downward, yes or no, on the checks for 2000 dollars that arrive at the prosecution,” he said, adding that the maneuver of McConnell to combine direct payments with other unrelated issues “is intended to eliminate the possibility of $ 2,000 checks becoming law.”

McConnell on Tuesday introduced legislation combining three Trump priorities – expanded stimulus checks, a complete repeal of online liability protections, and an investigation into alleged electoral fraud – each a prerequisite for Trump signing on to the program relief and Covid spending earlier this week. Trump himself never specified that these three elements should be linked.

But on Wednesday, McConnell said the House bill had “no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate,” and said the Democrat-led effort strayed from what Trump had actually asked for. .

Where are things at: There are no scheduled votes on McConnell’s bill or on legislation passed by the House, and GOP aides say it is likely that the 116th Congress will end without any action on increasing the numbers. direct payments.