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The January runoff election for the two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia will determine which party controls the chamber. It could also decide whether Congress passes a new coronavirus stimulus bill.
The reason? If Democrats oust the two Republican senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Purdue, the Senate breakdown would be 50-50. And that would mean Democrats would be in control as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris can sever ties.
Of course, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Might instead decide to strike a deal with the House Democrats, including a new round of $ 1,200 checks, before the adjournment of the Congress for the year.
“If Democrats are smart, they will try to make it a referendum on the lack of a stimulus package,” said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.
“This is going to be a really salient issue in Georgia: If Democrats get those two seats, you get a stimulus package and you get a check. If you don’t want to see another check, give McConnell the chance to do more of what he’s done.
Americans want new stimulus bill as soon as possible, says Pew Research Center survey published Friday. More than two-thirds, 68%, said they wanted a bill passed by the current Congress while 11% waited to wait for Joe Biden to become president. Only 19% said additional help was not needed. The survey of 11,818 American adults was conducted from November 12 to 17 and had a margin of error of 1.6 percentage points.
Negotiations on a new stimulus bill have stalled over Democratic demands to include hundreds of billions of dollars in state and local government aid, and Republicans are demanding it protect businesses from the lawsuits if their clients or employers are infected with the coronavirus.
“I think getting a deal helps both parties,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., Co-Chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus which proposed compromise legislation.
“Failure to come to an agreement hurts both sides. It is really essential that both parties show that they can pass a bill. Both sides will be punished for appearing obstructionist. “
This may be one of the reasons the House Democrats lost at least 10 seats in the Nov. 3 election after being favored to increase their majority, Gottheimer said, suggesting voters might have them. be punished for not helping those suffering from the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic. .
“It is becoming increasingly clear that a stimulus program is absolutely necessary,” said Ashley Koning, assistant research professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers. “It would make sense for Democrats and Republicans to want to come to some sort of consensus on this.”
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The Senate and the House support renewed assistance for small businesses and increased unemployment insurance payments. McConnell suggested that Congress approve these arrangements and fight for everything else later.
But House Democrats insist any bill also includes federal aid to hard-hit state and local governments, which so far has not been a fix for Republicans, even as McConnell recently expressed its willingness to consider such assistance.
When Joe Biden was vice president, federal aid to state governments was a key part of the $ 787 billion stimulus bill passed in 2009 in response to the Great Recession. It represented 42% of the package, or $ 330 billion, according to the California State Legislature’s Office of Fiscal and Policy Analysis.
Meanwhile, Americans are suffering, according to statistics.
About 12% of New Jersey adults living with children – 291,000 – said their children weren’t eating enough because they couldn’t afford to feed them properly, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a group of progressive research.
The number of New Jerseyans receiving food stamps rose 11% from February to July, from 661,000 to 735,000, according to the center. And 17% of tenants, 352,000, are behind in their payments.
This puts more pressure on both sides to sit down and negotiate, Gottheimer said.
“Now. The two sides are not really biting to get to the table,” he said. “It helps to show that you are eager to make a deal. We’re going to have to work to make a deal.”
So far, Senate Republicans have been reluctant to spend more than $ 500 billion, and that includes increased taxpayer grants for religious and other private schools.
Their bill did not garner enough support to pass their chamber, let the Democrat-controlled House pass, which voted to spend $ 2.4 trillion.
“Whether or not the Senate respects the American people has always been up to the majority leader,” said US Senator Robert Menendez, DN.J. “Mitch McConnell sets the agenda and, so far, has been unwilling to engage with Democrats in any meaningful way on any new stimulus.”
Gottheimer acknowledged that there was no longer an immediate need for some of the spending proposed in the House now that the elections were over, such as money for local election officials and the U.S. Postal Service to handle the increased costs. postal votes.
This would reduce the size of the bill for now and allow Democrats to return for longer once Biden is invested as president.
“Do you have something or nothing?” Gottheimer said. “I’m picking something knowing it’s a short-term emergency package to get us into the Biden administration. If we can get the votes for something, and it’s enough, we take something.
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Jonathan D. Salant can be reached at [email protected].
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