The Republican leader in the Senate blocks the increase in aid requested by Trump

Without being clear who is the author of the famous phrase "politics makes strange bedfellows", without a doubt, it fits like a glove to what is happening these final days of the Trump Administration with its open duel with Congress.

If the president of the United States wanted to make amends for his fellow party members by raising the stakes and demanding an increase in aid for the population from $ 600 to $ 2,000, he has undoubtedly achieved it, being applauded by the Democrats - who have voted in favor of the increase - and has put the majority of Republican members of the Capitol in an unlikely position by conflating Democratic wishes with Trump's.

Although the response to the president has not been long in coming, and the almighty Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, has quickly marked the field on two fronts.

One, by blocking the president's initiative on the increase in stimulus checks that the House of Representatives, with a Democratic majority, approved with the approval of the president and with 275 votes in favor and 134 against (44 Republicans supported it).

And two, by announcing that Republican senators will vote tomorrow Wednesday against the veto imposed by Trump on the Defense law, something that has never happened in the last almost 60 years.

Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $ 2000 payments ASAP.

$ 600 IS NOT ENOUGH!

Also, get rid of Section 230 - Don't let Big Tech steal our Country, and don't let the Democrats steal the Presidential Election.

Get tough!

https://t.co/GMotstu7OI

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2020

McConnell's decision aims to be the beginning of a saga that engulfs the Senate, at least, for the rest of the week.

Because it is not only Democrats who are satisfied with the improvement in the stimulus in the checks, but also the two Republican senators from Georgia who are at stake for reelection on January 5 - and whose result will determine the final composition of the Senate of the nation - have positioned themselves electorally in favor of the increase.

Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida, joined his colleagues from Georgia, as did Josh Hawley (Missouri), one of its early advocates.

The Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, asked the Upper House to pass the law that has already been certified by the House, although he made a small note: “There is a big difference in saying that the check is supported. $ 2,000 and fight for that initiative to become law, "said Schumer.

The Democrat then launched an ordeal to his colleagues from the opposing caucus by questioning whether the Republican senators were going to have the courage to face three-quarters of the House of Representatives, the majority of the Democratic senators and the president of his own party .

In a speech in the hemicycle, McConnell recalled that Trump on Sunday signed the bailout, approved last week by both houses of Congress, worth more than 900,000 million dollars, which included direct transfers of 600 dollars to the most vulnerable taxpayers. after the coronavirus crisis.

In his address, the Republican leader in the Senate highlighted that “during this process the president has highlighted three additional issues of national relevance that he would like Congress to tackle together.

$ 2000 for our great people, not $ 600!

They have suffered enough from the China Virus !!!

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2020

The first, as McConnell has explained, the president would like more direct financial support for American households.

"The second is the growing willingness on both sides of the chamber to at least reassess the special legal protections afforded to tech companies, including the ways in which it benefits some of the most prosperous and powerful big tech," he said.

Finally, regarding the third point, McConnell cited the investigations into an alleged electoral fraud, alleged by Trump without offering evidence.

“These are three important issues that the president has linked.

This week, the Senate will begin the process to focus on these three priorities, ”he said, without going into more details.

The activity of the Senate is going to be frantic this last week of a year that ends with Donald Trump facing his own party while the president still does not accept the results thrown by the polls on November 3.

If the president threatened, two days before Christmas, to veto the Defense budget approved by Congress, this past Monday, the House of Representatives with a Democratic majority reversed the threatening veto of the president, who entered a self-destructive path, shortly after that he had to give up and back down by bowing to pressure from Republicans and Democrats to sign the second great bailout of the US economy.

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