MITCH McCONNELL PROVES HE IS JUST A VERY BAD JOKE

 

                                         …The ”real” Senate Majority Leader

 

Mitch McConnell just laughs at his own constituents

 

In the state of Kentucky, the Democratic Candidate against the Republican Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell, is Amy McGrath.  Just imagine how it looked when Ms. McGrath had announced in her debate with Mr. McConnell that the head of the food bank in Alabama had told PBS that his organization could not keep up with the demand for food….and the Senate leader just laughed.

Yes, on the live, TV debate for the Senator of Kentucky, McGrath had gone after McConnell for his lack of action on an additional economic stimulus.  And yes, McConnell had not supported any relief for the millions of Americans suffering from the economic results of the coronavirus pandemic.  All McConnell did was to point out that he had helped pass the first rounds of relief last Spring.  He then tried to suggest that the lack of action was the fault of the Democrats who wanted to spend money on things unrelated to the crisis. But they were things for those areas that are also suffering from the effects of dealing with the pandemic.  They were not unrelated issues.  That caused McGrath to come out swinging with: “The House passed a bill in May and the Senate went on vacation. I mean, you just don’t do that. You negotiate. Senator, it is a national crisis.”

And McConnell just laughed.  He laughed at the millions of Americans as we are all now living through the greatest national economic crisis since the Great Depression.  Millions upon millions of Americans are jobless as massive industries ranging from restaurants and bars, to airlines, to salons, and even to child care facilities.  They are all warning that they are going out of business without immediate and substantial government aid.

And the GOP Senate Majority Leader is laughing at our nation’s suffering.

Mass layoffs continue to be announced, and more are expected.  The desperation of the unemployed, now going without the federal supplement that made skimpy state unemployment benefits livable, is growing.

McConnell actually continued to chuckle as McGrath said: “If you want to call yourself a leader, you’ve got to get things done.”

Perhaps, to be precise, McGrath should have used the word “recess” to describe the Senate’s week-long break.  But otherwise she got this one completely right.

Most Americans think we need to do more to help people struggling as a result of the pandemic and from the economic pain of lockdowns, shutdowns and social distancing mandates. And when I say “most,” I mean a large majority.  Poll after poll shows Americans favor extending the $600-a-week unemployment supplement that was allowed to expire by the inaction of Senate Republicans.

However, as long as Republicans continue to control the Senate, it’s unlikely Americans will receive significant help.

McConnell’s response to the economic catastrophe that has resulted from the pandemic is his full-on contempt for the suffering and the needy. The Republicans’ proposed aid packages have been ridiculously inadequate, with the result that the Democrats have refused to back them.  Even after the debate, McConnell once again proposed a very “skinny” stimulus, one really targeted at small-business owners, that would also offer some minor unemployment assistance.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), along with several colleagues, has repeatedly defended the $2.2 trillion relief bill that House Democrats passed Oct. 1.   As to McConnell’s offering, Pelosi said:

“This is not serious. Our economic need is not ‘skinny,’ but large and ever-growing. That’s why House Democrats passed a $3 trillion aid package in May.”

Even President Trump knows what’s needed as…. last Tuesday he even tweeted: “STIMULUS Go big or go home!!!”

And McConnell had said that he would back a large bill on pandemic relief if Trump was behind it….so......?

But these pretend attempts at any action, they pay off for McConnell in one important way.  A majority of Americans believe both parties should share blame for the impasse. They believe it is the fault of both parties that people cannot receive the help that they so desperately need.  It's wrong to believe that, but most Americans are confused as I am as well.

But McConnell’s laugh does give us a serous lie to that belief.  He is demonstrating the heartlessness and cruelty at the heart of the Republican project.  It has been a 40-year effort by the Republican Party to tear down the scaffolding of FDR’s  New Deal and return us to a meaner, nastier world where individual citizens are left to fend for ourselves.  This is even as, due to the Republicans, the wealthiest Americans and largest businesses receive tax breaks and regulatory relief that leave us all poorer.

But most Americans don’t want the Republican agenda.  They want to see the Affordable Care Act expanded, not overturned. They want to see an increase in Social Security benefits, not the GOP’s means-testing approach. They want increased taxes on the wealthy, not further tax cuts for the one percent.

And just to be clear, the Republicans have passed up chance after chance to deliver more pandemic aid.  They resisted it from the very beginning.  Even hours before passing the package with the unemployment supplement back in March, a number of Republicans in both the House and the Senate were publicly whining it was to big.  Many have repeatedly claimed that unemployment benefits are keeping Americans out of the workforce.  They are ignoring the fact that if you are for instance, a waiter or hotel housekeeper, those jobs are not exactly plentiful at the moment.

McConnell is so confident that his plans will succeed, he couldn’t even be bothered to offer any fake empathy onstage for a few hours on the debate night.

His laugh makes it clear as to what having a continued Republican majority in the Senate means.  It means that Americans will continue to get treated with contempt by politicians who claim to be acting on their behalf.

It’s all just a very bad Mitch McConnell joke.

Copyright G. Ater 2020