Mitch McConnell, Democrats Team up to Stop Vote on Sanders' $2,000 Survival Payment

Tammy Baldwin Votes to Kill $2,000 Payment for Working Families

 

Madison, Wisconsin — Working families' fear that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Senate Democrats would join forces to defeat Sen Bernie Sanders' (I-Vermont) popular $2,000 direct payment effort were realized yesterday.

 

Sen. Sanders wanted an up-or-down vote on a bill, a demand that proved too much for Democrats and McConnell who stopped the proposed measure.

 

McConnell effectively killed Sanders' work that had delayed consideration of the Senate's effort to override the Trump veto of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2021.

 

The Senate Roll Call vote that killed consideration of Sanders' $2,000 proposal is 80 YEAs, 12 NEAs and eight senators Not Voting.

McConnell pronounced that Sanders now had "no realistic path" for the $2,000 checks after the Democrat-supported vote.

The two Georgia Republican senators, Sens Kelly Loeffler (R) and David Perdue (R), facing elections on Jan 5, are two of eight senators not voting. 

 

Both Loeffler and Purdue gave lip service in favor to the $2,000 proposal, walking a political tightrope between McConnell and Donald Trump who pushed for the $2,000 measure on social media.

Only five Democratic senators defied the Party's hostility to the $2,000 payment, joining Sanders and six Republicans voting No on the procedural vote.

Wisconsin's two senators, Tammy Baldwin (D) and Ron Johnson (R), voted against the $2,000 payments.

Democratic senators outnumbered Republican senators voting to stop the $2,000 direct payments, after the New York Times and the Washington Post launched a campaign against the measure.

McConnell's vote is a win for the Democratic Senate caucus that opposes the $2,000 payments, for most Republican elected officeholders, McConnell and the incoming Biden administration that also opposes survival aid for working families.

Senate Democrats’ Motion To Concede On $2,000 Checks - The Daily Poster

My God!! If the suffering of millions of people in this damn country does not give elected leaders a damn back bone, I don’t know what will.

This is 🤬unconscionable! https://t.co/0AQF6AM00f

— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) December 31, 2020

Meanwhile, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D), after voting with the Republicans, posted misleading communications on social media, falsely saying the Republicans killed the $2,000 measure, though Democrats supplied the most votes.

Senate Republicans are standing in the way of an up-or-down vote on the House-passed bipartisan legislation to deliver...

Posted by Senator Tammy Baldwin on Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Sen. Bernie Sanders: "There is a level of economic desperation in this country right now that we have not seen in our lifetimes." pic.twitter.com/sZ7MGugHS0

— The Hill (@thehill) December 31, 2020