On this, Trump found himself in alignment with Democrats in the House and Senate. Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, responded to Trump’s threat by saying they would push for follow-up legislation to increase the checks to $2,000, and on Monday the House of Representatives on Monday passed a bill to do just that, with 44 Republicans voting in favor. But McConnell has not said whether he would even allow a vote on the $2,000 checks, despite some support among Republicans such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “I am concerned about the debt, but working families have been hurt badly by the pandemic,” Rubio wrote on Twitter. “This is why I supported $600 direct payments to working families & if given the chance will vote to increase the amount.”
By vowing to hold up the vote on the defense-bill override, Sanders is taking a cue from McConnell and using procedural tactics to get his way. He says he will attempt to keep senators in Washington through New Year’s Eve as part of his protest. Such a move would also pull Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the two Georgia Republicans competing in run-off elections that culminate on January 5, off the campaign trail in the race’s final days.
“The House passed a $2,000 direct payment for working people,” Sanders said on Twitter on Monday evening. “Now it’s the Senate’s turn. If McConnell doesn’t agree to an up or down vote to provide the working people of our country a $2,000 direct payment, Congress will not be going home for New Year’s Eve. Let’s do our job.”
Sanders’ allies on the progressive left praised his use of “hardball tactics” to get a vote on the $2,000 checks. “Sanders’ gambit is a potential sea change moment in contemporary politics,” writes David Sirota, a liberal journalist and former Sanders speechwriter. “For once, Republicans are being put in a tough spot to try to simultaneously justify rejecting a wildly popular proposal for direct domestic aid while rubber-stamping policies that allow for hundreds of billions of dollars of Pentagon spending — and they have to try to somehow rationalize that insanity during a pandemic and economic emergency.”
Article Appeared @https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/bernie-sanders-covid-stimulus-checks-congress-mcconnell-1108243/