With Democrats telling Republicans to put up or get out of the way on the American Rescue Act, ten Republican Senators led by Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Rob Portman, and Bill Cassidy have released the outline of an alternative COVID relief plan that is less than a third of the cost of the Biden/Harris proposal.
Highlights of this plan include:
- Full funding of the Biden/Harris vaccination program.
- Funding to reopen schools.
- Expansion of unemployment insurance but at current levels, not the $400 a week the new Administration is proposing.
- Additional cash payments at $1000 per individual and more targeted to those in need as opposed to the $1400 in the Biden/Harris measure.
- Small business assistance.
- Dropping the $15.00 minimum wage increase.
Additional details on the Republican plan will be released tomorrow.
The ten Republicans released their letter just before the Sunday Morning Talk Shows. Both Brian Deese, the Biden/Harris Administration head of the National Economic Council, and Jared Bernstein of the Council of Economic Advisors welcomed the Republican letter and advised they and others would review the ideas contained in it.
It would be welcome and preferable for the country If all ten Republicans are sincere in wanting a bipartisan COVID 19 relief bill.
If they are serious, they will show it by acknowledging that their plan, like the Biden/Harris one, is a starting point in negotiations, not a take it or leave it proposition.
Otherwise, this is just a save face gimmick to tell their constituents we had a plan too.
The American People will know relatively quickly whether the Republicans are serious.
History is not on their side.
Republicans universally opposed the Clinton Economic Plan in 1993.
Only three Republicans (Collins was one of them) supported the Obama/Biden Stimulus Plan in 2009.
No Republican publicly supported or voted for either the Clinton Health Care Plan in 1994 or Obamacare/the Affordable Care Act in 1994.
Even today, Republicans Portman and Cassidy, two co-writers of the letter that was sent to the Biden/Harris Administration, have engaged in lies about the President's outreach efforts, saying they have not been.
Joe Biden personally called Senators Portman and Collins this last week.
The White House hosted a virtual meeting with a bipartisan group of Senators last Sunday. Collins and Romney were at least two of the Republicans in attendance.
How is that not bipartisan outreach?
Portman and Cassidy are doing a disservice to the American People by lying that Joe Biden and his Administration are not reaching out to them.
That is not a good start to bipartisanship on their part.
It does not bode well for what they will do in the future.
Bipartisan action on legislation is ideal and preferable but if the past is any indication, look for a slightly less than $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act that satisfies the concerns of the Moderate Democrats that passes through reconciliation by mid-March or sooner.
A bipartisan miracle could happen but do not bet a lot of money on it.
It is time for Collins and her colleagues to prove they are sincere and want to help govern.
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