The House of Representatives is set to vote on an increase to the pending COVID relief checks on Monday. The increase will see the checks bumped up to $2000, and the measure is expected to pass the House.
Bizarrely, this change from the initially-proposed $600 relief checks was kick-started by President Donald Trump, not a Congressional Democrat. Seeing an opportunity to pressure their Republican opponents in the Senate, Democrats jumped at the opportunity to champion the increase.
It is unclear what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell thinks of Trump’s demands for larger relief checks for Americans. Many pundits have assumed that McConnell was pivoting to a policy of economic austerity in order to kneecap the incoming Biden administration and make it difficult for Democrats to pass meaningful economic aid for the country in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with the Republican Party’s top politician pushing for more public spending, it could be politically damaging for McConnell to oppose the increase to the checks.
Some Republicans Uncomfortable with Increase
The libertarian wing of the Republican Party, as well as some deficit hawks, have bristled at the idea of any relief checks being sent to Americans. An increase of any amount has been off-limits for some lawmakers, but the president and the leader of the party demanding a huge hike in the size of the relief checks puts them in an awkward position.
For many deficit hawks, the idea of spending billions on relief checks for the average American, instead of on the military budget or Congressional healthcare, is untenable. This is why Democrats were so quick to double down on Trump’s insistence that the relief checks be increased. Pinning Republicans to the president’s own rhetoric puts them in a lose-lose situation. if they support the measure, they’re backing massive public spending. If they oppose it, they’re drawing the president’s ire, and the potential of being primaried and unseated in their next bid for reelection.
Trump’s Demands
Trump signed off on the COVID spending bill on Sunday after initially delaying it with the threat of only signing off when Congress had authorized $2000 checks for Americans. However, that wasn’t the president’s only demand of the Senate. He has also called for an end to Section 230, which protects social media sites from liability for things their users post. In addition, he called for an investigation into “voter fraud” he alleges marred the 2020 election.
Whether the Senate will authorize any of these measures remains to be seen. Once the House votes on the bill, it will be up to Mitch McConnell and the Senate to vote to authorize the increase to the relief checks. What McConnell chooses to do is anyone’s guess.
