Today, Wednesday, October 21, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continued to express optimism that she and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin would be able to reach a deal on another big coronavirus relief and stimulus package–although a bill is unlikely before election day on November 3.
And, also today, the Senate, predictably, failed to pass a scale down $500 billion relief and stimulus package proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The vote of 51-44 was far short of the 60 votes needed to move the bill forward. The result were nearly the same as last month when McConnell failed to win passage of a virtually identical bill. Senate Democrats voted against the measure, which is, they say, too small, and also omits Democratic priorities of billion in aid for hard-pressed cities and states. McConnell’s bill also omits a provision for sending $1200 checks to every American that is supported by both Democrats and the White House.
After the vote, Pelosi said in an interview, “We obviously want to have a deal by November 3. That really is going to be up to whether the President can convince Mitch McConnell to do so. I think Mitch McConnell might not mind doing it after the election.
I’d have to say I disagree with Pelosi on the effect of the election on McConnell’s willingness to advance any stimulus deal.
My position is closer to that of Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri. Getting anything done in the lame duck session that follows an election but comes before a new Congress is always difficult, he said. “If we’re gonna do it this year, I think it’s now or never.”
The Standard & Poor’s 500 hung tough in positive territory as late as 3 p.m. New York time when the index was still ahead by 0.44%. It ended the day down 0.22%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended off 0.35%. The NASDAQ Composite was lower by 0.28%. And the small cap Russell 2000 index was lower by 0.81%. (It’s worth watching the Russell 2000 here. The index outperformed its large cap peers when optimism about a stimulus deal and a broad-based U.S. economic recovery as running high. Now it looks like small cap stocks might be giving back those gains on worries about the future of any stimulus.)
