What happened
The Senate was poised to pass the $1.9 tril-
lion coronavirus relief package on a party-
line vote this week, setting up President
Biden for his first major legislative win.
The House version of the bill—passed last
week with no Republican votes—included
$1,400 stimulus checks for Americans earn-
ing under $75,000 a year; an extension of
$400-a-week federal unemployment ben-
efits through August; $350 billion in aid to
state and local governments; and billions of
dollars for schools, restaurants, vaccination
programs, and numerous other measures.
Under pressure from moderate Senate Democrats, Biden agreed to
narrow income eligibility for the stimulus checks. The House plan
had included smaller payouts for individuals earning $75,000 to
$100,000; individuals who earn more than $80,000 will now get
nothing. But Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer vowed that
the bill—which is being advanced through the filibuster-proof bud-
get reconciliation process—would pass largely intact. “We’ll have
the votes,” he said. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced
the legislation as “a bonanza of partisan spending.”A measure to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 was stripped
from the legislation, after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that
it fell outside the narrow parameters required by reconciliation.
The ruling enraged progressive House Democrats, some of whom
suggested they might withhold their votes when the bill returns to
the House for final approval. Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted the
amended package would pass the chamber. “We have a consensus
in our caucus,” she said, “that we are here to get the job done for
the American people.”What the editorials said
What an “excessive and unnecessary” boondoggle, said
Washington Examiner.com. We’ve already spent $4.1 trillion on
pandemic stimulus, and stand at a moment when infections are
plummeting and the economy is primed for a rebound. Most of the
money in the bill “isn’t even focused on the crisis at hand,” but is
instead being spent on long-standing liberal priorities, such as aid-
ing “teachers unions and bailing out pension funds.” It’s of a piece
with Biden’s overarching plan: “to jam through the most far-leftagenda in American history, even if he has
to do it without a single Republican vote.”Republicans “are putting party above
country,” said the New York Daily News.
Polls show strong public backing for the
bill, and the four previous pandemic aid
packages “enjoyed widespread bipartisan
support.” So why is the congressional
GOP united in opposition? No doubt
the claimed fears that the bill will cause
inflation to spike—an idea dismissed even
by the Trump-appointed Federal Reserve
Chairman Jay Powell—are of less concern
than “the party of the president who’ll get credit for its impact.”What the columnists said
This isn’t a Covid relief bill, “it’s Christmas for Democrats,” said
David Harsanyi in NationalReview.com. The “partisan monstrosi-
ty” is larded with giveaways that have nothing to do with pandemic
recovery—such as $350 billion to prop up blue states that “refuse
to balance their budgets” and $852 million “for lefty-approved
civic-volunteer agencies.” A third of the money won’t be spent until
2022 or later, “by which time the economy will be doing just fine.”Republicans are making a tactical mistake, said Hayes Brown in
MSNBC.com. In an oft-split country, Biden’s relief package “is al-
most absurdly popular”: 76 percent of voters support it, including
60 percent of Republicans, according to a new Morning Consult
poll. Republican lawmakers seem happy to stick to Trumpism, yet
they’ve abandoned the economic populism that helped Trump win
in 2016, said Sam Stein in Politico.com. “For a party hoping to
reclaim power, it’s a notable bet on the potency of grievance and
culture wars.”It’s worse than that, said Greg Sargent in WashingtonPost.com.
Republicans are calculating that their “scorched-earth strategy”
against a popular bill simply won’t matter in the 2022 midterms.
GOP-dominated state legislatures are “racing forward with an
extraordinary array of new voter-suppression efforts” and plotting
“extreme gerrymanders” that could win them the House. Instead of
heeding the American majority, Republicans have a different plan:
“doubling down on counter-majoritarian tactics.”Sen. Schumer: ‘We’ll have the votes.’AP
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Covid relief package nears finish line
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It wasn’t all bad QA refugee fighting to stay in the U.S. won $620,000 on the
World Poker Tour. Ilyas Muradi, 32, was born in Afghanistan
amid devastating unrest. His family fled to Pakistan, then to
Indiana. As an adult, Muradi was twice held in ICE deten-
tion. To pass the time, he began playing poker with fellow
detainees. Soon, “whenever I had any chance to play, I was
playing,” he says. This
January, he flew to Florida
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1,572 other players for
$620,000 in prize money.
“If you want to get some-
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it,” said Muradi. “Anyone’s
dream can come true.” For
now, Muradi’s immigration
status remains in limbo.QEmily Johnson’s doctor advised
her to get vaccinated before flying
from Austin to Ohio for an urgent
open-heart surgery procedure, but
Johnson could not secure an ap-
pointment in Texas’ overwhelmed
system. Desperate, the 68-year-
old asked for advice in her local
Nextdoor group. Soon a message
appeared from Christy Lewis: “I am
scheduled for the vaccine this morn-
ing at 10:45 a.m. If you can make
this appointment, it’s yours.” The
women went together to the clinic
and requested a shot for Johnson
instead of Lewis. “I still cannot
believe a total stranger would do
something like that,” said Johnson.QA delivery driver saved a tod-
dler’s life when she fell from a Ha-
noi apartment building this week.
Nguyen Ngoc Manh was sitting
in his car when he heard a child
crying and bystanders screaming.
Looking up to see a 2-year-old dan-
gling from a 12th-floor railing, and
reminded of his own daughter, he
ran over and climbed onto a metal
roof below the child. The roof was
crooked and Manh lost his footing,
but he lunged forward and caught
her just in time. “I’m here now,”
he told the girl, who was carried to
safety with only a dislocated hip. When the chips are down...