Last week, before the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, there was a slight–ooh so slight–chance that with a nod from the White House in favor of adding more money to the proposal from Senate Republicans Congress might pass a new coronavirus rescue package that renewed enhanced unemployment benefits, repeated the $1200 (or more) check to each American, and provided billions in cash for beleaguered cities and states among other things.
Now, though, that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump have said that they want to hold a vote on replacing Ginsburg before the November election or as soon after as is possible–the Republicans own Merrick Garland rule for not filing a seat in the year before an election, be damned–and have sent Democrats into a rage, we should consider the possibility of negotiations as over, null, void, dead as a doornail.
Democrats will not sit down across the table from Republicans and compromise. No way.
With the question of whether and when there will be a coronavirus rescue package decided, we can shift our attention to the effect of the Supreme court vacancy warfare on efforts to pass a federal stop-gap funding bill so that the government doesn’t shut down at the end of September.
There’s obviously not a whole lot of time to put something together and the only realistic option, in my opinion, on this deadline is what’s called a “clean bill” that merely extends current spending levels for some period of time.
Of course, the definition of a “clean bill” varies depending on who’s speaking. Republicans had wanted to add $30 billion in funding for the Commodity Credit Corporation, which provides price support for farm commodities. For a moment, it looked like there might be a deal to pair that $30 billion with a Democratic proposal for $2 billion in additional food assistance for children, but that possibility looks to have collapsed over the weekend. Today House Democrats released a stopgap government funding bill without the $30 billion for commodity price supports and instead pushes that funding off into a coronavirus stimulus bill that at the moment is going nowhere. Is this enough to kill the funding bill? Most of that bill, including an agreement to extend government funding through December 11, has been agreed upon between the two parties.
The House is expected to vote on its spending bill this week but Senate Majority Leader McConnell of Kentucky has denounced the Democratic-written proposal as “unacceptable.” In a statement he said, “House Democrats’ rough draft of a government funding bill shamefully leaves out key relief and support that American farmers need,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement.
Has partisan anger risen to a level that will produce a government shutdown–in the middle of a pandemic–in less than two weeks?
Stay tuned.
