DEMOCRATS ARE STRONGLY GOING AFTER THEIR GOP COMPETITORS

…This man has an up-hill run for keeping his seat as the Senate Majority Leader

GOP Candidates don’t seem to be concerned about the American citizens during our time of crisis

The expiration of an additional $600-per-week in unemployment insurance by July 31 is adding pressure on vulnerable GOP senators.  This is as 20 million to 30 million people remain out of work. I was happy to hear that Mitch McConnell and many other Republicans that adamantly oppose extending the benefit are under pressure to extend the payments.

But the Republicans continue to say that extending the $600 insurance discourages some from returning to work because they are making more money by staying home.  Okay, in that case, make it less than $600 per week, but they still need support until the virus is under control.

The spiraling pandemic and the increasingly virulent politics around Washington’s handling of the Covid-19 virus are seriously raising the pressure on Senate Republicans.

As the Senate returns this week for a three-week sprint before the August break, the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), is facing dealing with both competing demands from President Trump, and the Republican senators.  Some of these senators are up for reelection in states hit hard by the virus and they are coming under attacks by Democratic challengers over the pandemic.

The Trump administration has further up-ended talks over the relief bill by trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing.  The Trump moves are angering some of those Republican senators.  Some White House officials argue that they have already approved billions in funding for testing and that some of that money remains unspent, but they refuse to show the public the actual numbers.

The election-year politics over the pandemic will be wound into the next coronavirus package.  It is a complicated issue that McConnell will have to manage along with disputes within his own conference over aid to states and localities.  This, along with the on-going negative view by the American public of the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic.

“We have to…all together…get through this by making sure that people are able to get back to work.  That businesses are able to survive, and that individuals know that they’re going to be okay,” this from the endangered Republican Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.) in a phone interview.

Gardner said his constituents are pressing him for more federal assistance and they said he supports extending the enhanced unemployment benefit, although he is open to an amount less than the additional $600 per week. He said he is also open to Democrats’ demands for more aid for states and localities, although he didn’t specify how much.  McConnell’s proposal, as of now, is not expected to include new money for state and local aid. But McConnell’s idea is for cities, states and towns to use their existing aid.  He is apparently referring to the early aid that was given that is probably already spent, but nobody really knows.

This first-term Republican senator, who is facing former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper (D) for Senator on Nov. 3, said he conveyed his request to McConnell in a call, pressing for the next relief package also to include more support for nationwide coronavirus testing.

Another at-risk Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, told reporters in her state last week that she is seeking more state aid, particularly for towns with smaller populations.  She also wants a fresh round of aid for small businesses and education funding to help schools reopen.  She wants to continue expanded unemployment insurance, but only just enough that the money makes up for their lost wages. (To come up with that figure would take weeks or months for every individual’s pay to be reviewed.)  This is counter to many in her party, but she stressed that, “now is not the time to worry that another costly rescue package will add to the rising debt.”

Isn’t it interesting to hear a Republican talking like that about the rising debt that Trump has been costing the country, long before the pandemic hit.

Nearly all the Republican candidates’ political standing has fallen over the past month.  This is not according to me, but to GOP strategists involved in all the Senate races.

All those factors will be taken into consideration as Congress rushes into the next phase of coronavirus legislation this week.  McConnell is expected to unveil a pandemic relief proposal as early as today with a target value of $1 trillion.  However, some Republicans speculate that the figure could be much larger.  Extra attention is likely to be paid to the demands of vulnerable Republican senators, the GOP officials said.

But there are several complicating factors involved. Trump is insisting on a cut in payroll taxes, which funds Social Security, as part of the next package.  Although few Republicans are warm to the idea, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has repeatedly expressed opposition.

The two parties will also haggle about the education aid. The White House and Senate Republicans want to attach incentives or conditions to tens of billions of dollars in new aid to help schools re-open.  However, the Republicans are still debating whether to pursue the aid carrots, or the aid sticks.

Also, the package is expected to include some sort of stimulus check for consumers.  A maximum of $1,200 was included in the last major bill, but the size of the payments is not yet clear.

“There may be a need for a broad-based payment of individuals like we did last time,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the fourth-ranking Senate Republican, told reporters late last week. “But for sure, there’s a need to try to figure out how to have more of a target in the recovery phase of the economy than [we] did in the March rescue phase.”

The prime red line for Senate leaders has been liability protections.  McConnell has a plan that offers schools, charities, businesses and medical workers a legal shield from being held responsible in coronavirus-related lawsuits.  That is, unless there was gross negligence or intentional misconduct.  This is according to a draft viewed by The Washington Post. The proposal has been shared with White House officials, who are reviewing it.

Meanwhile, the states that have had the most dramatic spike in virus cases include Arizona, Georgia and Texas, all of which have Senate races in varying levels of competitiveness and where Democratic opponents have made the pandemic a central theme in their campaigns.

“David Perdue and Donald Trump have nothing to run on but widespread disease, mass unemployment, a record of being wrong and being wrong such that Americans lose their lives, millions have lost their jobs,” said Jon Ossoff, who is challenging Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) in November. “David Perdue will lose in November when his record is exposed.”

Perdue emphasized in a statement that he is seeking liability protections and more flexibility in aid for small towns in the next relief package.

“While Democrats, like my opponent, are spreading false information to score political points during this crisis, my top priority is to protect the people of Georgia so we can continue to safely reopen the economy and start to get kids back to school,” Perdue said.

However, Purdue has failed to explain just what “false information” Mr. Ossoff was “spreading” to score his political points.

In Texas, Democrat Ms. MJ Hegar has repeatedly hammered Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) for his response to the pandemic, and the comments the senator made this year that Democrats say minimized the severity of the crisis.  “He said it was a mistake to expand unemployment insurance, and I’m not confident that he would support it again,” Hegar said in a phone interview. “That’s not a handout. That is our country, our capitalist economy responding to the economic crisis. So he should be thinking more about what is best for his constituents and not what Mitch McConnell tells him to say.”

Travis Considine, a Cornyn campaign spokesman, said Cornyn opposes the enhanced unemployment insurance and added: “Senator Cornyn has delivered billions in relief for Texas hospitals, front-line workers, schools, and small businesses hit by the pandemic. MJ’s false attack is just another example of her sticking to the script national Democrats have written for her.”

However, the Democrats had no reason to write a script for Ms. Hegar, who hasn’t needed any help in going after Senator Cornyn.

In Arizona, where case numbers are surging dramatically, polls have shown GOP Sen. Martha McSally well behind Mr. Mark Kelly, her Democratic challenger.  Kelly, a former astronaut, has begun targeting ads toward Native American communities in the state, arguing that the federal government is ignoring their needs in the pandemic.  He is calling for extending the enhanced unemployment benefit while McSally has not even taken a position on the issue.  This is according to a  McSally spokeswoman.

Kelly has also called on Congress to provide direct relief to Arizona’s cities and towns. McSally has declined to back the additional aid, instead saying she supports “maximum flexibility” for money already distributed, which could allow localities to spend the money on those other services, not specifically related to the Covid-19.

Republicans are facing a somewhat unusual situation in Montana, where Sen. Steve Daines has found himself under increased pressure as his Democratic challenger, Gov. Steve Bullock, who uses his gubernatorial perch to steer the state through the pandemic.  Bullock declared a state of emergency and shut down schools, bars and restaurants early in March, then reopened the state early in late April.

For a long time, this rural state had among the lowest infection rates and is now among the top three in economic growth, according to the Labor Department, a feat touted by Bullock and the governor’s office.

As stated, the Dems today, seem to be in a pretty good position for both going after the Executive Branch and the US Senate, for the November election.

Stay tuned.

Copyright G. Ater 2020