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The Senate met on Friday for a rare New Years session to fight against the $ 2,000 stimulus checks demanded by President Trump.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Has said he will not allow a vote on payment for the pandemic unless Democrats agree to repeal legal protections for business of social media and to create a commission against electoral fraud.
Hurry up. The next session of Congress begins at noon Sunday, and if the checks are not approved by then, a bill passed by the House dies and will have to be passed again.
“The House Democrats’ bill is just not the right approach,” McConnell said Friday.
Many conservatives oppose increasing the recently approved checks from $ 600 to $ 2,000, saying it would add about $ 462 billion to the national debt and potentially cause inflation.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-SD) said on Friday it would be “a shotgun approach where a rifle makes a lot more sense.”
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) noted that some Republican senators support the new checks.
“For once we have progressive Democrats, conservative Republicans, the president himself and of course the majority – the vast majority of the American people singing from the same songbook to back these checks,” he said. he declared.
Schumer said Friday would be the “last chance” to approve the bigger stimulus checks.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, David Perdue of Georgia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina support the increase in the amount of the check.
“If the Senate does not act today, the $ 2,000 checks will not become law until the end of Congress, and they will know that Leader McConnell and the Republican majority prevented them from getting the checks, clearly and simply, ”Schumer said.
The fight for the checks has become linked to another battle over whether to override Trump’s veto on a $ 740 billion defense bill. His veto will be maintained if the Senate vote does not take place on Sunday noon.
Senators are expected to vote on Friday on whether to rescind the veto, which would be the first of Trump’s presidency. Sixty votes are needed to end debate, which means some Democrats are needed even without a deal on the $ 2,000 checks.
Trump said he vetoed the Defense Bill because it did not repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects tech companies that host third-party content, because it seeks to hamper its withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan from 4,500 in November to 2,500 in January. 15 and because it would force the renaming of 10 military bases that honor the Confederates.
If larger checks were approved, the amount of relief would decrease for those with higher incomes.
For individual taxpayers with no dependents, the amount decreases – under the $ 600 and $ 2,000 proposals – for people earning more than $ 75,000 per year. People earning more than $ 95,000 – and couples without dependents earning more than $ 190,000 – do not benefit from either plan.
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