Having tried and failed in the first half of this to lard up the coronavirus relief bill with extraneous goodies and intrusive regulations to please her rabidly progressive constituency, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided to take her bat and ball and go home for the day.Pelosi and the House got in at 10am this morning and left at 10:02am.
They will likely not be voting on the Senate Bill today.
What does that mean?
It means Pelosi is withholding aid from Americans for another day!
What an absolutely horrible person.
We're in a situation where every day, every hour counts. Every day that passes without a paycheck or unemployment relief is a day untold numbers of families grow closer to losing their homes. Every hour that money doesn't go out to manufacturers is another hour hospitals have to wait for masks and ventilators. Every hour some sick New Yorker has to wait for another hospital bed. Every dinner out postponed, every canceled event, every missed business opportunity is another step closer to economic collapse.
It doesn't have to be this way. Congress knows what to do: Pass a clean bill and get it on the President's desk. Pronto.
Details are thin, but here's what we have:
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi signaled Wednesday she may support a bipartisan Coronavirus relief bill making its way through the United States; saying the legislation meets the "needs of the American people."
"America is facing a grave health crisis with a serious impact on our economy. I salute the strong leadership of Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats," she said Wednesday. "I especially thank our House Democratic Committee Chairmen, who worked hard to move the Republican proposal from corporations-focused to workers-first and who will now review the legislative text of this agreement with our Caucus."
"This bipartisan legislation takes us a long way down the road in meeting the needs of the American people," Pelosi said.
"Bipartisan" at least in the sense that Senators of both parties rejected her attempt to turn a relief package into a Democrat Christmas list.
Pelosi's statement came barely any time at all after she dismissed the House this morning, so we might have just witnessed the fastest fold in Congressional history. Or maybe she's figured out how to get some of her goodies back into the bill. We might not know which until Pelosi deigns to hold a vote, and meanwhile, the clock is ticking for millions of American families and tens of thousands of America's infected.
When hours count, Congress is just one corrupt Speaker away from doing the wrong thing.