Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Trump As The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

 So the Congress struggled for months after the House passed a $3.3 trillion followup Covid relief bill, which Senate Majority Leader McConnell blocked and kept blocking.  House Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin kept negotiating and coming up with this or that proposal, only to mostly have McConnell shoot it down, or sometimes Pres. Trump himself doing so.  Finally after the election, and with the threat of losing control of the Senate, McConnell suddenly decided a deal needed to be made, so sure enough, with Mnuchin supposedly representing Trump, a deal got cut.  It must be recognized that the push for having another round of direct payments was pushed by Trump, who threw out several numbers, and McConnell got it that this was popular. So he went along with Mnuchin's suggested $600 per person, half of what was sent out in the CARES round last spring.

The whole thing has also been linked to the Omnibus general budget spending package, which needs to get passed or the government will get shut down, with ongoing week by week Continuing Resolutions holding that off, the current one expiring on Monday.  It contains mostly things approved in the budget sent officially from Trump's OMB to Congress, although it is pretty clear he does not know what is in there.

So when the Congress managed to cut all sorts if possible things like aid to states and local governments as well as limiting liability of corporations for having conditions leading to workers getting Covid-19, but had about $300 billion for small businesses somewhat less for the $600 payments for those making under $75,000, not to mention a good deal less for continuing unemployment benefits set to expire the day after Christmas, and some other such things. Whew! It looked like this difficult, if highly imperfect, deal was cut just in time to keep lots of people from being dumped from benefits right after Christmas and also send out $600 to lots of people right after Christmas. Hooray!

But then last night Trump put out a video announcing his unhappiness with all this. On the one hand he called for something arguably desirable, a $2000 payment rather than $600, which has drawn forth Dem support at least from the House.  But then he also went on a rant against items in the Omnibus spending bill not part of the relief bill, notably about $5 billion in foreign aid and also some even smaller expenditures on such items as the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the Smithsonian, somehow suggesting incoherently that these monies were a wasteful part of the relief bill.  While it remains unclear what he is going to do in the end, for the moment he is not signing it, which means unemployment benefits might start ending right after Christmas, not to mention people not only not getting the supposed desired $2000 but even $600, and not to mention that hard pressed small businesses will not be able to apply for any of that $300 billion supposedly available for PPP loans.

So, indeed, President Trump is the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Barkley Rosser

PS: And of course Trump is also pardoning all kinds of criminals closely associated with him and has also vetoed the National Defense bill, first time that has happened in 60 years, something that maybe should happen, although his reasons are to prevent renaming military facilities away from Confederare officers and also to remove Section 230 that prevents him from suing social media companies that censor things he posts.  Quite a roll this grinch is on.

36 comments:

  1. Yes, quite grinchy indeed - not that the $600 dollars will cover rent for a month or a 1/2 of month and not any food vs. billions provided to the upper 1% in the tax 'reform' bill in 2017. Now Trump wants $2,000 but won't get Republican support for that which will be awkward for the Georgia race.

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  2. Trump threatens COVID relief bill, testing loyalty of GOP

    via @BostonGlobe - December 24

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Threatening to tank Congress’ massive COVID relief and government funding package, President Donald Trump’s demand for bigger aid checks for Americans is forcing Republicans traditionally wary of such spending into an uncomfortable test of allegiance.

    On Thursday, House Democrats who also favor $2,000 checks will all but dare Republicans to break with Trump, calling up his proposal for a Christmas Eve vote. The president's last-minute objection could derail critical legislation amid a raging pandemic and deep economic uncertainty. His attacks risk a federal government shutdown by early next week.

    "Just when you think you have seen it all," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote Wednesday in a letter to colleagues.

    “The entire country knows that it is urgent for the President to sign this bill, both to provide the coronavirus relief and to keep government open.”

    Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have resisted $2,000 checks as too costly. House Republicans are expected to block the vote, but Democrats may try again Monday.

    Rather than take the victory of the sweeping aid package, among the biggest in history, Trump is lashing out at GOP leaders over the presidential election — for acknowledging Joe Biden as president-elect and rebuffing his campaign to dispute the Electoral College results when they are tallied in Congress on Jan. 6. ...

    ----

    Speaker Pelosi and the Squad rally support for Trump’s push for larger COVID-19 stimulus relief checks

    via @BostonGlobe - December 23

    US Representatives Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez all backed Trump's push on Congress to amend the latest pandemic relief package.

    ... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backed Trump’s push to amend the bill, tweeting out late Tuesday “let’s do it.”

    “Republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the president wanted for direct checks. At last, the President has agreed to $2,000 — Democrats are ready to bring this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!”

    Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib said they already had language prepared for an amended bill, pushing for $2,000 stimulus checks for individuals and $4,000 for couples, striking the $600 and $1,200 respective proposals from the bill.

    Mass. Representative Ayanna Pressley backed her colleagues’ support for the amendment, calling Trump’s move a “hard line in support of what progressives have been fighting for, literally all year.” Representative Ilhan Omar also tweeted that she was “in.” ...

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  3. Go figure!

    House Republicans block Democratic bid to pass Trump demand for $2,000 checks

    via @BostonGlobe - December 24

    WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans shot down a Democratic bid on Thursday to pass President Donald Trump’s longshot, end-of-session demand for $2,000 direct payments to most Americans before signing a long-overdue COVID-19 relief bill.

    The made-for-TV clash came as the Democratic-controlled chamber convened for a pro forma session scheduled in anticipation of a smooth Washington landing for the massive, year-end legislative package, which folds together a $1.4 trillion governmentwide spending with the hard-fought COVID-19 package and dozens of unrelated but bipartisan bills.

    Thursday’s unusual 12-minute House session session instead morphed into unconvincing theater in response to Trump’s veto musings about the package, which was negotiated by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Trump’s behalf. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat, sought the unanimous approval of all House members to pass the bill, but GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who was not present in the nearly-empty chamber, denied his approval and the effort fizzled. ...

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  4. Democrats Try and Fail to Jam $2,000 Payments Through House

    NY Times - December 24

    ... The result of the dysfunction is that millions of Americans who were counting on relief in the immediate future, or even continued unemployment checks, are not going to get them, barring a surprise bill signing in Florida.

    On Thursday, the Government Publishing Office finished physically printing the nearly 5,600-page package, and congressional leaders signed it before it was to be flown to Florida by the White House for Mr. Trump’s possible signature. But if the president does nothing, the legislation — and its relief — will die on Jan. 3 with the statutory end of the 116th Congress. Government funding, extended unemployment benefits and a continued eviction moratorium will have lapsed even before then.

    “The best way out of this is for the president to sign the bill,” said Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the Republican leadership, “and I still hope that’s what he decides.”

    A delay in signing the bill could be costly for unemployed workers. States cannot pay out benefits for weeks that begin before the bill is signed, meaning that if the president does not sign the bill by Saturday, benefits will not restart until the first week of January. But they will still end in mid-March, effectively trimming the extension to 10 weeks from 11.

    “Donald Trump’s temper tantrum is threatening to cost millions of jobless workers a week’s worth of income,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. “The ability of millions of Americans to pay rent and buy groceries hangs in the balance, and Donald Trump spent the day golfing. It’s shameful.”

    The Democrats’ Christmas Eve gambit on the House floor was never meant to pass, but the party’s leaders hoped to put Republicans in a bind — choosing between the president’s wishes for far more largess and their own inclinations for modest spending.

    Republicans rejected the request by the House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, for unanimous consent to pass a measure fulfilling Mr. Trump’s demand for $2,000 checks.

    Without support from both Republican and Democratic leadership, such requests cannot be entertained on the House floor. Republicans then failed to put forward their own request to revisit the foreign aid provision of the spending legislation that Mr. Trump has also objected to, although most of the items came almost dollar for dollar from his own budget request. ...

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  5. Democrats Try and Fail to Jam $2,000 Payments Through House

    NY Times - December 24

    ... The result of the dysfunction is that millions of Americans who were counting on relief in the immediate future, or even continued unemployment checks, are not going to get them, barring a surprise bill signing in Florida.

    On Thursday, the Government Publishing Office finished physically printing the nearly 5,600-page package, and congressional leaders signed it before it was to be flown to Florida by the White House for Mr. Trump’s possible signature. But if the president does nothing, the legislation — and its relief — will die on Jan. 3 with the statutory end of the 116th Congress. Government funding, extended unemployment benefits and a continued eviction moratorium will have lapsed even before then.

    “The best way out of this is for the president to sign the bill,” said Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the Republican leadership, “and I still hope that’s what he decides.”

    A delay in signing the bill could be costly for unemployed workers. States cannot pay out benefits for weeks that begin before the bill is signed, meaning that if the president does not sign the bill by Saturday, benefits will not restart until the first week of January. But they will still end in mid-March, effectively trimming the extension to 10 weeks from 11.

    “Donald Trump’s temper tantrum is threatening to cost millions of jobless workers a week’s worth of income,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. “The ability of millions of Americans to pay rent and buy groceries hangs in the balance, and Donald Trump spent the day golfing. It’s shameful.”

    The Democrats’ Christmas Eve gambit on the House floor was never meant to pass, but the party’s leaders hoped to put Republicans in a bind — choosing between the president’s wishes for far more largess and their own inclinations for modest spending.

    Republicans rejected the request by the House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, for unanimous consent to pass a measure fulfilling Mr. Trump’s demand for $2,000 checks.

    Without support from both Republican and Democratic leadership, such requests cannot be entertained on the House floor. Republicans then failed to put forward their own request to revisit the foreign aid provision of the spending legislation that Mr. Trump has also objected to, although most of the items came almost dollar for dollar from his own budget request. ...

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  6. Democrats Try and Fail to Jam $2,000 Payments Through House

    NY Times - December 24

    ... The result of the dysfunction is that millions of Americans who were counting on relief in the immediate future, or even continued unemployment checks, are not going to get them, barring a surprise bill signing in Florida.

    ,,, if the president does nothing, the legislation — and its relief — will die on Jan. 3 with the statutory end of the 116th Congress. Government funding, extended unemployment benefits and a continued eviction moratorium will have lapsed even before then.

    “The best way out of this is for the president to sign the bill,” said Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the Republican leadership, “and I still hope that’s what he decides.”

    A delay in signing the bill could be costly for unemployed workers. States cannot pay out benefits for weeks that begin before the bill is signed, meaning that if the president does not sign the bill by Saturday, benefits will not restart until the first week of January. But they will still end in mid-March, effectively trimming the extension to 10 weeks from 11.

    “Donald Trump’s temper tantrum is threatening to cost millions of jobless workers a week’s worth of income,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. “The ability of millions of Americans to pay rent and buy groceries hangs in the balance, and Donald Trump spent the day golfing. It’s shameful.”

    The Democrats’ Christmas Eve gambit on the House floor was never meant to pass, but the party’s leaders hoped to put Republicans in a bind — choosing between the president’s wishes for far more largess and their own inclinations for modest spending.

    Republicans rejected the request by the House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, for unanimous consent to pass a measure fulfilling Mr. Trump’s demand for $2,000 checks.

    Without support from both Republican and Democratic leadership, such requests cannot be entertained on the House floor. Republicans then failed to put forward their own request to revisit the foreign aid provision of the spending legislation that Mr. Trump has also objected to, although most of the items came almost dollar for dollar from his own budget request. ...

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  7. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again...

    Pelosi says House to vote on bigger stimulus payments after GOP blocks increase

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that House Democrats would vote Monday on a standalone bill that would provide direct payments to Americans of $2,000 a person.

    Pelosi, D-Calif., made the announcement moments after House Republicans blocked a Democratic bid to increase the payments as passed in the stimulus bill earlier this week from $600 a person to $2,000.

    "On Monday, I will bring the House back to session, where we will hold a recorded vote on our stand-alone bill to increase economic impact payments to $2,000. To vote against this bill is to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny them the relief they need," Pelosi said in a statement Thursday morning.

    "Hopefully, by then the president will have already signed the bipartisan and bicameral legislation to keep government open and to deliver coronavirus relief," she said. ...

    Trump shredded the year-end spending and Covid-19 relief package this week, saying it includes too many provisions that have nothing to do with the pandemic and that it is too stingy with payments to average Americans. The $900 billion relief package, which was passed by both chambers of Congress, included a new round of direct payments and help for jobless Americans, families and businesses struggling in the pandemic. ...

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  8. If this isn't the time to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, then we really need to ask ourselves why we even have it. Yet another dead letter component of the Constitution.

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  9. Trump rails at Justice Dept., Supreme Court as stimulus bill deadline nears

    via @politico - December 26

    On the day millions of Americans left unemployed by the coronavirus pandemic prepare to lose benefits, President Donald Trump publicly aired his grievances with federal law enforcement agencies and the Supreme Court.

    In a tweetstorm beginning early Saturday morning, Trump railed against the the Department of Justice and U.S. attorney John Durham for failing to produce a report that exposed wrongdoing in the FBI's Russia probe.

    “Where the hell is the Durham Report? They spied on my campaign, colluded with Russia (and others), and got caught,” Trump tweeted without providing any evidence to back his claims.

    The president then took aim at the FBI and DOJ for not pursuing baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, saying the agencies “should be ashamed” for the lack of action against what he deemed “the biggest SCAM” in U.S. history.

    Attorney General Bill Barr, who appointed Durham as a special counsel to investigate the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation, left the Justice Dept. on Wednesday after falling out of favor with Trump for not supporting the president’s claims of widespread voter fraud or releasing Durham’s report before the November election.

    Trump also took aim at the Supreme Court, calling it "totally incompetent and weak" and again questioning why it wouldn't hear a suit filed by Texas claiming election fraud, effectively ending legal challenges to the electoral process.

    “See everyone in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump added, alluding to the date when some of his most ardent supporters in the House prepare to mount a long-shot challenge to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win while Congress counts the Electoral College votes. In a previous tweet, he accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans of having "NO FIGHT!"

    Meanwhile, the future of a roughly $900 billion coronavirus relief package, which would provide millions of households with direct payments and enhanced federal unemployment benefits, remains in question over the president's objections. ...

    If Trump doesn't sign the bill — which also includes $1.4 trillion in regular government spending — a partial government shutdown would be triggered on Tuesday.

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  10. Jobless Benefits Run Out as Trump Resists Signing Relief Bill

    NY Times - December 27

    WASHINGTON — Millions of Americans lost their unemployment coverage on Saturday as President Trump resisted signing a sweeping $900 billion aid package until lawmakers more than tripled the size of relief checks, putting the fate of the measure in limbo.

    Mr. Trump’s resistance to signing the bill risks leaving millions of unemployed Americans without crucial benefits, jeopardizes other critical assistance for businesses and families set to lapse at the end of the year and raises the possibility of a government shutdown on Tuesday.

    The president blindsided lawmakers this week when he described as “a disgrace” a relief compromise that overwhelmingly passed both chambers and was negotiated by his own Treasury secretary. He hinted that he might veto the measure unless lawmakers raised the bill’s $600 direct payment checks to $2,000, and Mr. Trump, who was largely absent from negotiations over the compromise, doubled down on that criticism on Saturday while offering little clarity on his plans. A White House spokesman declined to indicate what the president intended to do.

    “I simply want to get our great people $2000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter Saturday, a day he continued to dedicate many of his posts to falsehoods about the election. “Also, stop the billions of dollars in ‘pork.’”

    If the president does not sign the $2.3 trillion spending package, which includes the $900 billion in pandemic aid as well as funding to keep the government open past Monday, coverage under two federal jobless programs that expanded and extended benefits will have ended on Saturday for millions of unemployed workers.

    The consequences of such a delay are dire, economists, policy experts and lawmakers said, particularly as the United States’ economic recovery continues to sputter and the pandemic ravages the country. Some warned that any resolution at this point may be too late for families who will have lost their only lifeline shielding them from the brunt of the pandemic’s economic toll, and will further burden overwhelmed state unemployment agencies waiting for guidance on how to enact the legislation.

    “Foreclosures, hunger, homelessness, suicide,” said Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst for the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit workers’ rights group. “There will be very permanent things that happen to people that can’t be fixed by a check in three weeks.”

    Even if the legislation becomes law before the end of the 116th Congress on Jan. 3, the delay will have guaranteed a temporary lapse in unemployment benefits because states will not be allowed to restart benefits until the first week of January. The delay has also effectively reduced the scope of the extension and expansions in the relief bill because they are still scheduled to end in mid-March. A provision in the bill adding $300 a week to unemployment benefits would now last for 10 weeks, instead of the intended 11. ...

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  11. Trump signs massive measure funding government, COVID relief

    via @BostonGlobe - December 27

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion pandemic relief package Sunday, ending days of drama over his refusal to accept the bipartisan deal that will deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and avert a federal government shutdown.

    The massive bill includes $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September and contains other end-of-session priorities such as money for cash-starved transit systems and an increase in food stamp benefits.

    Trump announced the signing in a statement Sunday night that spoke of his frustrations with the COVID-19 relief for including only $600 checks to most Americans instead of the $2,000 that his fellow Republicans rejected. He also complained about what he considered unnecessary spending by the government at large. But Trump’s eleventh-hour objections created turmoil because lawmakers had thought he was supportive of the bill, which had been negotiated for months with White House input.

    “I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed,” Trump said in the statement.

    While the president insisted he would send Congress “a redlined version” with items to be removed under the rescission process, those are merely suggestions to Congress. The bill, as signed, would not necessarily be changed.

    Lawmakers now have breathing room to continue debating whether the relief checks should be as large as the president has demanded. The Democratic-led House supports the larger checks and is set to vote on the issue Monday, but it’s expected to be ignored by the Republican-held Senate where spending faces opposition.

    Republicans and Democrats swiftly welcomed Trump’s decision to sign the bill into law. ...

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  12. Trump Signs Pandemic Relief Bill After Unemployment Aid Lapses

    After blasting the $900 billion stimulus deal as a “disgrace,”
    President Trump abruptly signed the bill, ending the last-minute
    turmoil he had created.

    The measure extends expanded unemployment benefits and an eviction
    moratorium and includes billions of dollars to help states
    with vaccine distribution.

    President Trump, who had stalled on the bill for days, issued
    a series of demands for congressional action even as he
    signed it, though lawmakers showed little immediate
    enthusiasm for his requests.

    After calling the measure a “disgrace,” President Trump
    unexpectedly signed the bill, extending expanded
    unemployment benefits and an eviction
    moratorium, and keeping
    the government open. ...

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  13. I have not seen what his final demands are, but I guess he figured out that he was getting nothing but bad press on this one. So the Grinch has given Christmas back, if grumbling while doing so.

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  14. 2020 Was the Year Reaganism Died

    NY Times - Paul Krugman - December 28

    Maybe it was the visuals that did it. It’s hard to know what aspects of reality make it into Donald Trump’s ever-shrinking bubble — and I’m happy to say that after Jan. 20 we won’t have to care about what goes on in his not-at-all beautiful mind — but it’s possible that he became aware of how he looked, playing golf as millions of desperate families lost their unemployment benefits.

    Whatever the reason, on Sunday he finally signed an economic relief bill that will, among other things, extend those benefits for a few months. And it wasn’t just the unemployed who breathed a sigh of relief. Stock market futures — which are not a measure of economic success, but still — rose. Goldman Sachs marked up its forecast of economic growth in 2021.

    So this year is closing out with a second demonstration of the lesson we should have learned in the spring: In times of crisis, government aid to people in distress is a good thing, not just for those getting help, but for the nation as a whole. Or to put it a bit differently, 2020 was the year Reaganism died.

    What I mean by Reaganism goes beyond voodoo economics, the claim that tax cuts have magical power and can solve all problems. After all, nobody believes in that claim aside from a handful of charlatans and cranks, plus the entire Republican Party. ...

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  15. Sanders, Markey to block defense bill override vote until Senate gets a say on $2,000 relief payments

    via @BostonGlobe - December 28

    ... Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey — along with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris — had been “fighting for months to get Congress to pass a $2,000 direct payment for the working class.”

    “At a time when so many people are facing economic desperation, the $600 direct payment is a step forward – but it’s not enough,” Sanders, an Independent, wrote on Twitter Monday. “We need to increase that direct payment to $2,000. Biden wants it, Trump wants it, Pelosi wants it, Schumer wants it. Now, Congress must vote to do it.”

    After the House passed the measure, Sanders pledged that he would object to a vote on the defense bill veto override — legislation that previously received widespread bipartisan support before Trump rejected it — until “we get a vote on legislation to provide a $2,000 direct payment to the working class.”

    “This week on the Senate floor Mitch McConnell wants to vote to override Trump’s veto of the $740 billion defense funding bill and then head home for the New Year,” Sanders wrote on Twitter. ...

    Markey said he would be joining in on blocking the defense bill with Sanders “until we get a vote on $2,000 in direct cash relief.”

    “That relief passed in the House today with 44 Republicans voting for it,” Markey, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter Monday evening. “Senate Republicans must do the same and get the American people the help they need.” ...

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  16. Golfing with the Deal Master...

    A day on the golf course helped change Trump’s mind

    Washington Post via @BostonGlobe - December 29

    WASHINGTON - The frantic campaign to persuade President Donald Trump to sign a massive spending and coronavirus relief bill came to a head on Christmas Day, on the greens and fairways of West Palm Beach, Fla.

    Three days earlier, Trump rocked Washington with a surprise video announcement suggesting that he might veto the bill, a meticulously negotiated measure aimed at delivering unemployment benefits, stimulus checks and other desperately needed aid to millions of Americans.

    With other key Republicans waylaid, it fell to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to talk the president down. So Graham raced to Trump's Florida golf club and worked the problem: What possible solution could assuage Trump without forcing Congress to reopen negotiations?

    "We'd hit a shot, take a phone call. Hit a shot, take a phone call. Hit a shot, talk about what's a good deal," Graham said in an interview Monday. "It was a very intense Christmas Day."

    Two days later, Trump signed the measure and issued a long statement airing his grievances and expectations. On Monday, the House responded, voting 275 to 134 to advance one of Trump's key demands: boosting the stimulus checks from $600 per adult to $2,000. ...

    Still, by signing the coronavirus relief package, Trump avoided plunging his administration into further chaos in its final days - to say nothing of the disarray the bill's failure would have meant for millions of ordinary Americans. Had Trump not signed the bill, unemployment benefits and stimulus checks would have been delayed, along with additional funding for vaccine distribution. It also could have sparked a lengthy government shutdown that might not have been resolved until Trump left office on Jan. 20. ...

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  17. McConnell blocks immediate vote on $2,000 stimulus checks, leaving their fate in limbo

    Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, on Tuesday blocked an effort to hold
    an immediate vote to increase stimulus checks to $2,000, saying instead that the Senate would “begin a process” to consider bigger payments, along with other demands issued by President Trump, leaving the fate of the measure unclear as more Republicans clamored to endorse it. ...

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  18. Sanders moves to delay override of Trump’s military bill veto, demanding a vote on stimulus checks

    Senator Bernie Sanders moved on Tuesday to delay a planned vote on a military policy bill that President Trump vetoed, insisting that lawmakers first vote on a proposal to increase the size of stimulus checks to $2,000.

    Mr. Sanders, the Vermont independent, used a procedural tactic to object to a request by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, to expeditiously take up the veto override vote. He asked Mr. McConnell to commit to putting on the Senate floor a measure passed by the House on Monday to increase direct payments. Mr. McConnell declined.

    The bid by Mr. Sanders could keep the Senate in Washington through New Year’s Day, a schedule that would be particularly burdensome to Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both Republicans of Georgia, who are facing tight runoff elections next Tuesday, and are eager to stay on the campaign trail. And it adds to the pressure facing Senate Republicans to act. ...

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  19. In other news...

    The year is coming to a close with risk assets such as stocks, corporate bonds and Bitcoin just off record highs. As investors try to gauge the impact of the pandemic and the pace of U.S. vaccine distribution, the S&P 500 is set to end the year 15% higher.

    On the coronavirus front, more restrictions are being imposed to fight the spread of the new, more infectious strain. Covid-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. reached new highs, while Southern California plans to extend a regional stay-at-home order. South Korea’s daily toll of fatalities rose to a record, while Thailand reported its first virus death since November.

    In Europe, the Stoxx 600 rose as the FTSE 100 Index rallied in the first session since the U.K.’s Christmas Eve trade deal with the European Union. ...

    Hospital and case numbers in England surpass the first peak, despite lockdowns

    New data triples Russia’s death toll

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  20. Treasury will try to start sending stimulus checks by end of week

    checks for as much as $600 into Americans' bank accounts

    WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is scrambling to send one-time stimulus payments to millions of Americans starting as soon as this week, as the U.S. government races to implement a $900 billion coronavirus aid package that President Donald Trump signed after days of delays. ...

    The Treasury Department is able to move more swiftly than usual to deposit checks for as much as $600 into Americans' bank accounts as a result of its earlier work this spring, when it disbursed larger sums under an earlier stimulus program. Americans who previously obtained their federal tax refunds through direct deposit were among the first to receive their payments at the time. Those receiving paper checks had a longer wait for the aid.

    The electronic deposits could go out Wednesday and Thursday in large tranches, according to a senior official at the Internal Revenue Service, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the agency's early plans. It remains unclear, however, if other obstacles might ultimately result in delays - particularly given the holiday week and its impact on staffing at major banks. A senior treasury official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the agency was sticking to the same targeted timeline as Mnuchin recently outlined - but signaled that the timing could change.

    The last-minute rush to send the stimulus checks reflects the gargantuan task facing the U.S. government as it aims to deliver new financial assistance quickly enough to avert a deeper dip in an already battered U.S. economy. ...

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  21. Missouri Senator Hawley says he will contest Electoral College win for Biden

    via @BostonGlobe - December 30

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., says he will raise objections next week when the Congress meets to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the election, forcing House and Senate votes that are likely to delay — but in no way alter — the final certification of Biden’s win.

    President Donald Trump has, without evidence, claimed there was widespread fraud in the election. He has pushed Republican senators to pursue his unfounded charges even though the Electoral College this month cemented Biden’s 306-232 victory and multiple legal efforts to challenge the results have failed.

    A group of Republicans in the Democratic-majority House have already said they will object on Trump’s behalf during the Jan. 6 count of electoral votes, and they had needed just a single senator to go along with them to force votes in both chambers.

    Without giving specifics or evidence, Hawley said he would object because “some states, including notably Pennsylvania” did not follow their own election laws. Lawsuits challenging Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania have been unsuccessful. ...

    When Congress convenes to certify the Electoral College results, any lawmaker can object to a state’s votes on any grounds. But the objection is not taken up unless it is in writing and signed by both a member of the House and a member of the Senate.

    When there is such a request, then the joint session suspends and the House and Senate go into separate sessions to consider it. For the objection to be sustained, both chambers must agree to it by a simple majority vote. If they disagree, the original electoral votes are counted. ...

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  22. Justice Dept. Asks Judge to Toss Election Lawsuit Against Pence

    NY Times - December 31

    The Justice Department asked a federal judge on Thursday to reject a lawsuit seeking to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results of the election, pitting the department against President Trump’s allies in Congress who have refused to accept President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.

    The department, acting on behalf of Mr. Pence, said that Republican lawmakers, led by Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas, could not invalidate the more than century-old law that governs the Electoral College process to expand an otherwise ceremonial role into one that has the power to reject electoral votes that were cast for Mr. Biden. ...

    ---

    Pence asks judge to reject GOP congressman’s elector lawsuit

    via @BostonGlobe - Bloomberg - December 31

    Vice President Mike Pence asked a federal judge in Texas to deny a Republican congressman’s emergency request for a court order that would essentially allow the vice president to reverse Donald Trump’s election loss during a joint session of Congress Wednesday.

    Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas should have sued the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives if he disagrees with the established way that Electoral College votes are counted, Justice Department attorneys representing Pence said in a filing Thursday.

    “The vice president -- the only defendant in this case -- is ironically the very person whose power they seek to promote,” the government said. “The Senate and the House, not the vice president, have legal interests that are sufficiently adverse to plaintiffs.” ...

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  23. Pence seeks rejection of lawsuit that aimed to expand his power to overturn the election

    Washington Post - December 31

    Vice President Pence asked a judge late Thursday to reject a lawsuit that aims to expand his power to use a congressional ceremony to overturn the presidential election, arguing that he is not the right person to sue over the issue.

    The filing will come as a disappointment to supporters of President Trump, who hoped that Pence would attempt to reject some of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college votes and recognize votes for Trump instead when Congress meets next week to certify the November election.

    The filing came in response to a lawsuit from Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) and a number of Republicans in Arizona, who argued that an 1887 law that governs how Congress certifies presidential elections is unconstitutional. The suit argues that the Constitution gives the vice president, in his role as president of the Senate, sole discretion to determine whether electors put forward by the states are valid.

    It asks a federal judge to take the extraordinary step of telling Pence that he has the right, on his own, to decide that the electoral college votes cast earlier in December for Biden are invalid and to instead recognize self-appointed Trump electors who gathered in several state capitals to challenge the results.

    While experts agree that the law is vague and confusing, it has never before been challenged; it has been accepted by officials in both parties for more than 130 years as establishing a process in which the voters, ultimately, choose the president. This year, 81 million voters supported Biden, earning him 306 electoral college votes to Trump’s 232. ...

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  24. Pence refused to sign on to plan to overturn election, lawyers say

    Lawyers representing Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and a group of Arizona Republicans disclosed in a court filing Tuesday that Vice President Pence rejected their request to join their attempt to subvert the results of the presidential election.

    Gohmert and 11 GOP "alternate" electors from Arizona – who met and unofficially cast their ballots for Trump despite him losing the state – filed suit against Pence on Monday in an attempt to argue that the vice president has sole authority to determine which presidential electors Congress will count when it certifies the results of the election. The far-fetched suit essentially asks the court to grant Pence the authority on Jan. 6 to overrule the results in swing states such as Arizona and have Congress count only pro-Trump electors instead of the ones President-elect Joe Biden won.

    In new court filings made public Tuesday, the plaintiffs disclosed that they had reached out to Pence before filing their suit in an attempt to join forces but that their talks did not reach any kind of agreement.

    “In the teleconference, Plaintiffs' counsel made a meaningful attempt to resolve the underlying legal issues by agreement, including advising the Vice President's counsel that Plaintiffs intended to seek immediate injunctive relief in the event the parties did not agree,” lawyers for Gohmert and the electors said in the filing. “Those discussions were not successful in reaching an agreement and this lawsuit was filed.” ...

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  25. Gohmert’s court filing claims Pence is not a ‘glorified envelope-opener’

    Washington Post via @BostonGlobe - January 1

    Lawyers for Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, filed new court papers Friday as part of their long-shot legal bid to overturn the presidential election, arguing that Vice President Mike Pence has far more power than the government claims to alter the outcome.

    In response to a Justice Department request to reject the suit, the Friday filing accused the government of trying to "hide behind procedural arguments." Gohmert's lawyers contended that arguments made by the Justice Department and Congress - that the suit upends long-established procedures and that Pence is an inappropriate target for the suit - are unfounded.

    "They say that the Vice President, the glorified envelope-opener in chief, has no authority to preside over anything else or to decide anything of substance or to even count the votes in those weighty envelopes. He is only the envelope-opener," Gohmert's filing states.

    Gohmert is arguing that the vice president has the power to effectively pick the next president during the formal recording of electoral college votes by Congress on Wednesday. Pence oversees that ceremony and, as president of the Senate, has the power to declare Biden electors in a handful of key states invalid and instead recognize electors supporting President Donald Trump, the filing contends. ...

    (Actually, the 'President of the Senate' has no power
    in the Senate other than to cast tie-breaking votes.)

    The vice president, as president of the Senate, has the authority (ex officio, as he or she is not an elected member of the Senate) to cast a tie-breaking vote. Other than this, the rules of the Senate grant its president very little power. (Wikipedia)

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  26. Federal Judge Dismisses Election Lawsuit Against Pence

    NY Times - January 1

    President Trump’s congressional allies had hoped to
    give the vice president the power to reject electoral
    votes that were cast for Joseph R. Biden Jr.

    WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit led by President Trump’s allies in Congress that aimed to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results of the election, dealing a blow to lawmakers’ last-ditch effort to challenge President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.

    Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle of the Eastern District of Texas ruled that Republican lawmakers, led by Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas, lacked the proper standing to sue Mr. Pence in the matter. The lawsuit challenged the more than century-old law that governs the Electoral College process, in an attempt to expand an otherwise ceremonial role into one with the power to reject electoral votes that were cast for Mr. Biden. ...

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  27. More GOP lawmakers enlist in Trump effort to undo Biden win

    via @BostonGlobe - January 2

    ... Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Saturday announced a coalition of 11 senators and senators-elect who have been enlisted for Trump’s effort to subvert the will of American voters.

    This follows the declaration from Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who was the first to buck Senate leadership by saying he would join with House Republicans in objecting to the state tallies during Wednesday’s joint session of Congress.

    Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat is tearing the party apart as Republicans are forced to make consequential choices that will set the contours of the post-Trump era. Hawley and Cruz are both among potential 2024 presidential contenders.

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had urged his party not to try to overturn what nonpartisan election officials have concluded was a free and fair vote.

    The 11 senators largely acknowledged Saturday they will not succeed in preventing Biden from being inaugurated on Jan. 20 after he won the Electoral College 306-232. But their challenges, and those from House Republicans, represent the most sweeping effort to undo a presidential election outcome since the Civil War.

    “We do not take this action lightly,” Cruz and the other senators said in a joint statement.

    They vowed to vote against certain state electors on Wednesday unless Congress appoints an electoral commission to immediately conduct an audit of the election results. They are zeroing in on the states where Trump has raised unfounded claims of voter fraud. Congress is unlikely to agree to their demand.

    The group, which presented no new evidence of election problems, includes Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Mike Braun of Indiana, and Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

    Biden’s transition spokesman, Mike Gwin, dismissed the effort as a “stunt” that won’t change the fact that Biden will be sworn in Jan. 20.

    Trump, the first president to lose a reelection bid in almost 30 years, has attributed his defeat to widespread voter fraud, despite the consensus of nonpartisan election officials and even Trump’s attorney general that there was none. Of the roughly 50 lawsuits the president and his allies have filed challenging election results, nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He’s also lost twice at the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The days ahead are expected to do little to change the outcome. ...

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  28. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the panel overseeing the Electoral College count. said the Republican effort to create a federal commission “to supersede state certifications” is wrong.

    “It is undemocratic. It is un-American. And fortunately it will be unsuccessful. In the end, democracy will prevail,” she said in a statement.

    The convening of the joint session to count the Electoral College votes is usually routine. While objections have surfaced before — in 2017, several House Democrats challenged Trump’s win — few have approached this level of intensity.

    On the other side of the Republican divide, several senators spoke out Saturday against Cruz and Hawley’s effort.

    Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said in a statement that she will vote to affirm the election and urged colleagues in both parties to join her in “maintaining confidence” in elections “so that we ensure we have the continued trust of the American people.”

    Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said a “fundamental, defining feature of a democratic republic is the right of the people to elect their own leaders.” He said the effort by Hawley, Cruz and others “to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in swing states like Pennsylvania directly undermines this right.”

    Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah called the Cruz-led effort an “ill-conceived endeavor” and said Trump’s call for supporters to converge on the Capitol had “the predictable potential to lead to disruption, and worse.” He added: “I could never have imagined seeing these things in the greatest democracy in the world. Has ambition so eclipsed principle?”

    Earlier this week, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, another possible 2024 contender, urged his colleagues to “reject this dangerous ploy,” which he said threatens the nation’s civic norms.

    Caught in the middle is Vice President Mike Pence, who faces growing pressure from Trump’s allies over his ceremonial role in presiding over the session Wednesday. His chief of staff, Marc Short, said in a statement Saturday that Pence “welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections.”

    Several Republicans have indicated they are under pressure from constituents back home to show they are fighting for Trump in his baseless campaign to stay in office. ...

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  29. Trump Call to Georgia Official Might Violate State and Federal Law

    NY Times - January 3

    The call by President Trump on Saturday to Georgia’s secretary of state raised the prospect that Mr. Trump may have violated laws that prohibit interference in federal or state elections, but lawyers said on Sunday that it would be difficult to pursue such a charge.

    The recording of the conversation between Mr. Trump and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of Georgia, first reported by The Washington Post, led a number of election and criminal defense lawyers to conclude that by pressuring Mr. Raffensperger to “find” the votes he would need to reverse the election outcome in the state, Mr. Trump either broke the law or came close to it.

    “It seems to me like what he did clearly violates Georgia statutes,” said Leigh Ann Webster, an Atlanta criminal defense lawyer, citing a state law that makes it illegal for anyone who “solicits, requests, commands, importunes or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage” in election fraud.

    At the federal level, anyone who “knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a state of a fair and impartially conducted election process” is breaking the law. ...

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  30. Republicans condemn GOP ‘scheme’ to undo election for Trump

    via @BostonGlobe - January 3

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The extraordinary Republican effort to overturn the presidential election was condemned Sunday by an outpouring of current and former GOP officials warning the effort to sow doubt in Joe Biden’s win and keep President Donald Trump in office is undermining Americans’ faith in democracy.

    Trump has enlisted support from a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress convenes in a joint session to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 win.

    With Biden set to be inaugurated Jan. 20, Trump is intensifying efforts to prevent the traditional transfer of power, ripping the party apart. ...

    “The 2020 election is over,” said a statement Sunday from a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mitt Romney of Utah.

    The senators wrote that further attempts to cast doubt on the election are “contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results.”

    Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said, “The scheme by members of Congress to reject the certification of the presidential election makes a mockery of our system and who we are as Americans.”

    Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said in a statement that “Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate” and that efforts to sow doubt about the election “strike at the foundation of our republic.”

    Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking House Republican, warned in a memo to colleagues that objections to the Electoral College results “set an exceptionally dangerous precedent.” ...

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  31. Time to question election results has passed, former defense secretaries say

    Washington Post via @BostonGlobe - January 3

    WASHINGTON - The time to question election results has passed, and there is no role for the military in changing them, all of the living former defense secretaries said in an extraordinary rebuke to President Donald Trump and other Republicans who are backing unfounded claims of widespread fraud at the ballot box.

    The former Pentagon chiefs issued their warning Sunday evening in an opinion piece that they co-authored and published in The Washington Post. Its authors include Trump's two former defense secretaries, Jim Mattis and Mark Esper, as well as each living Senate-confirmed Pentagon chief dating back to former vice president Dick Cheney, who was defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush.

    The article was published as some Republicans plan to contest the electoral college vote certification Wednesday, even after the president's attempts to challenge election results in court have failed. It also comes as concerns persist that Trump might seek to use the military to keep him in office, despite his electoral loss.

    "Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted," the former defense secretaries wrote. "Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived." ...

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  32. The wildest week in American politics in a very long time is getting underway

    via @BostonGlobe - January 3

    The wildest week of the 2020 election cycle is, perhaps appropriately, taking place in 2021. After all, will we ever get to leave 2020?

    Looking back through American history, one has to go back decades and possibly centuries to find a singular week with more consequential developments to American politics in the short term, medium term, and the long term.

    It is as though the 2016 election, the Donald Trump presidency, and the upending of our lives due to a pandemic was all in preparation for this week. ...

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  33. Pence said to have told Trump he lacks power to change election result

    NY Times via @BostonGlobe - January 5

    Vice President Mike Pence told President Donald Trump on Tuesday that he did not believe he had the power to block congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election despite Trump’s baseless insistence that he did, people briefed on the conversation said.

    Pence’s message, delivered during his weekly lunch with the president, came hours after Trump further turned up the public pressure on the vice president to do his bidding when Congress convenes Wednesday in a joint session to ratify Biden’s Electoral College win. ...

    In other news...

    It looks like the Dems have very likely
    taken both Georgia Senate seats

    although results are not final.

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  34. With wins in GA, Dems will have a Senate majority.

    (OK, one of those wins will be subject to a recount, but Ossoff
    currently has margin similar Biden's in defeating Trump in GA.)

    Democrats win one Georgia race, and the other hangs in the balance

    NY Times - January 6

    Democrats inched closer to taking control of the Senate on Wednesday, winning one of the two Georgia seats up for grabs in a pair of runoff elections while the second contest remained too close to call.

    The Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat and the pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, defeated Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican, to become the first Black senator in Georgia history and the first Black Democrat to be elected to the Senate in the South.

    In the other contest, David Perdue, the Republican whose Senate term ended on Sunday, and his Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, were neck-and-neck, with thousands of votes still to be counted, many of them from Democratic-leaning areas. ...

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  35. Actually, with 98% of the vote counted,
    Ossoff's lead was much larger than
    Biden's, at a bit less than 12K.

    Jon Ossoff - Democrat
    2,211,603 50.19%
    David Perdue - Republican
    2,194,578 49.81
    Total reported 4,406,181

    Margin 17025

    98% of the estimated vote total has been reported.

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/05/us/elections/results-georgia-runoffs.html

    ReplyDelete

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