Senate blocks elevated stimulus checks for Individuals after Invoice passes away within the Home of Representatives – CBS Pittsburgh

By jimadmin On Dec 30, 2020

PITTSBURGH / WASHINGTON (AP / KDKA) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the Democratic push to immediately put President Donald Trump’s call for major COVID-19 relief checks of $ 2,000 to the vote on Tuesday and said the board would “begin a process” to resolve the issue.

Last night the House of Representatives voted to give eligible Americans $ 2,000 – something President Trump is pushing for.

A two-thirds majority was required for the bill to pass in the democratically run house – and that was what it needed to be for the Senate to pass before it made it to the president’s desk.

The Pennsylvania senators seem divided over increasing the number of checks.

Republican Senator Pat Toomey released a statement Tuesday that said:

In the spring, our country’s economy was in ruins. Companies had to close and millions of workers could not make a living. Universal direct payments made sense back then because such a large percentage of Americans had lost income.

Fortunately, the unemployment rate has been cut by more than half since April and the economy is now recovering rapidly. The remaining acute problems today mainly focus on workers in the hotel, travel and entertainment industries. Now we need targeted support for these workers. Congress granted small businesses expanded unemployment benefits and grants to meet wage obligations in the recent COVID Relief Act to aid these efforts.

This targeted support is far more effective, efficient, and proportionate than large general payments to people who have not had a loss of income. Blindly borrowing or printing an additional two-thirds of a trillion dollars so we can send $ 2,000 to children, the deceased, and the tens of millions of workers who never missed a paycheck, such as federal and state employees, is neither a sound economic policy nor an I’m Ready to support this.

Despite not making an official statement, Democratic Senator Bob Casey posted a tweet on Dec. 23 indicating that he is in favor of payments of $ 2,000.

If we had a Democratic Senate, you would have more money in your pocket today. https://t.co/vVtuG7Wv1k

– Bob Casey Jr. (@Bob_Casey) December 23, 2020

His office also released a statement Tuesday stating:

Majority Leader McConnell has twice blocked a vote on the Democratic bill to put $ 2,000 in the pockets of families in trouble. The House passed this measure with an overwhelming bipartisan majority. The same could happen in the Senate if Majority Leader McConnell got out of the way.

The House of Representatives vote came just one day after President Trump signed the comprehensive Coronavirus Ease Act on Sunday evening.

President Trump was not happy with the $ 600 payments included in that bill and continued to urge Congress to increase the amount of payments to $ 2,000.