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McConnell: 15-20 GOP senators will not vote for any coronavirus deal
The Hill ^ | 07/31/20 08:47 PM EDT | BY JORDAIN CARNEY

Posted on 07/31/2020 8:38:13 PM PDT by RandFan

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that more than a third of Republican senators will not vote for any coronavirus relief package, underscoring division with his caucus.

"I think there are 15-20 of my guys that are not going to vote for anything. ... It's a statement of the obvious that we will not have everybody on our side," McConnell told WHAS, a Kentucky radio station.

McConnell's estimate comes as congressional Democrats and the administration are struggling to reach an agreement after days of talks about a potential fifth coronavirus package as cases climb across the country and an economy bludgeoned by the pandemic.

McConnell, during the radio interview, said the two sides were "light-years apart," the latest sign that Congress and the White House are not close to a quick deal.

"This negotiation is going to be tough," he added. "At the moment there's not much movement."

But GOP divisions have also been in the spotlight after several senators trashed their own party's package, which was unveiled Monday. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called the bill a "mess," while Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) argued that the negotiations were being carried out by "two big government Democrats."

McConnell, asked why a sizable portion of his conference is opposed to another bill, noted the growing size of the country's debt after Congress has already appropriated nearly $3 trillion in the previous four coronavirus bills.

"Their argument's not irrational. ... They don't think we ought to pass another one of these bills. I don't agree with that," McConnell said.

Asked what those GOP senators would say to voters, McConnell added, "I think everybody's got to make their best call here."

If 20 Republicans voted against an eventual coronavirus deal, that means McConnell would need support from at least 27 Democratic senators to get the bill over a 60-vote procedural threshold and pass it in the Senate. McConnell said during an interview with PBS "Newshour" earlier this week that "about 20 of my members think that we’ve already done enough."

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has referenced the GOP divisions as he's called for the administration to make progress on a larger fifth package. Republicans offered a package of roughly $1 trillion, while the bill passed by House Democrats was around $3 trillion.

"One Senator said: 'There are a hundred problems with the plan.' Another: 'It’s a mess. I can’t figure out what this bill is about.' ... Those would be harsh criticisms if they came from Democrats. But those quotes weren’t from Democrats, those were Republican senators talking about their own party’s plan," Schumer said during a speech from the Senate floor this week.

The previous four bills passed the Senate with either no opposition or only a handful of "no" votes.

But McConnell has repeatedly acknowledged that he expects the next deal to be more contentious.

"What's happened here is that the political environment has deteriorated significantly. ... We're four months closer to the election," he said.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; US: Kentucky
KEYWORDS: coronavirus; gop; ky; senate
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To: RandFan

If Trump is for it the RINO’s will be with the Communists.


21 posted on 07/31/2020 10:21:15 PM PDT by cabbieguy ("I suppose it will all make sense when we grow up"can't be counted)
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To: RandFan
With the country about to be taken into the next 980 years of totalitarian horror if the communists win this election, any discussion about debt or balanced budgets is supremely ludicrous...

The time and place for debt and budget actions was 2-3 decades ago... The communists, as well as the closet-communists in the Republican party, have finagled and fiddled while the Nation's financial structure edroded and, now, burned...

This well-developed and coordinated strategy and implementation has almost certainly led to the eventual destruction of capitalism and a guaranteed communist U.S., if not now, very soon...

22 posted on 07/31/2020 10:22:06 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is Sam Adams now that we desperately need him)
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To: SuperLuminal

Which begs the question, if it’s inevitable why fight it now.


23 posted on 07/31/2020 10:32:20 PM PDT by moehoward
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To: RandFan

Stop throwing money around, give us our tax cut, and we’ll talk.


24 posted on 07/31/2020 10:36:40 PM PDT by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: rintintin

Trump needs to go over their heads and speak to the people, and explain what is happening. Prime time event. No off the cuff remarks, no questions from press. Talk about what he wants to do to help people struggling, and who is stopping it.


25 posted on 07/31/2020 11:01:06 PM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: PghBaldy

The rats voted for their ridiculous plan 2 months ago. Whats Mitch been doing? the timing is not good.


26 posted on 07/31/2020 11:15:12 PM PDT by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: PghBaldy

“Trump needs to go over their heads and speak to the people, and explain what is happening. Prime time event. No off the cuff remarks, no questions from press. Talk about what he wants to do to help people struggling, and who is stopping it.”

I agree.


27 posted on 07/31/2020 11:24:48 PM PDT by flaglady47 (Donald Trump, President for Life (heh, heh))
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To: Oscar in Batangas

Wasn’t The Turtle kicked out of the military for some reason?


28 posted on 07/31/2020 11:40:08 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: rintintin

Lifetime Republican. Will vote for Trump. Will not vote for any Republican Senator named Cory Gardner or whoever else is running in Colorado this fall. Doubt any Republican laid-off will vote for any Republican opposed to any further stimulus. We were told to eat a giant Shiite sandwich by McConnell and the party. Very same Republican Senators were opposed to Trump banning Indian H1Bs and want to keep the Indian Jobs Express on track.

Democrats will retake the Senate.


29 posted on 08/01/2020 12:21:23 AM PDT by Starcitizen (Communist China needs to be treated like the pariah country it is. Send it back to 1971)
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To: Alberta's Child

Optics and the McConnell soundbite to the contrary: “We will pass an extension to unemployment benefits over my dead body”


30 posted on 08/01/2020 12:23:55 AM PDT by Starcitizen (Communist China needs to be treated like the pariah country it is. Send it back to 1971)
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To: moehoward; Alberta's Child

Correct me if I’m wrong, I think you two misunderstand that Turtle is speaking of *any* plan.
Not just of a plan that Dems will accept.

Though I expect the Dems, and the Trump-haters, will soon accept relief for the workers put out of jobs by mandates.

I will have to look at the names and see who is not up for re-election for a long while and could expect to get away with hurting workers... if the media works hard enough to protect them.


31 posted on 08/01/2020 12:32:53 AM PDT by mrsmith (US MEDIA: " Every 'White' cop is a criminal! And all the 'non-white' criminals saints!")
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To: RandFan; All

For several years now I’ve followed the perspective that the Federal Reserve is the most formidable adversary to the United States and its citizens.

With respect to what Congress is attempting to do now, I don’t care if they write a 10 trillion dollar bill.

There’s an old banking proverb that I have extended to the current era: “If you owe a bank millions, you have a problem; owe a bank billions, the bank has a problem; owe the bank trillions, the bank is toast.”

Take a good look at this:

https://usdebtclock.org

Now as your eyes gloss over, imprint this one fact on your brain:

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR AMERICANS TO EVER PAY OFF THEIR NATIONAL DEBT.

Each US Citizen owes more than $465,000 in national debt. An American family of four owes more than $1,860,000 of the national debt.

Can’t be paid.

Absorb the following facts:
1. The President wants a return to the gold standard.
2. The President nominated and the Senate approved Judy Shelton as a board member to the Federal Reserve.
3. Judy Shelton is in favor of returning to the gold standard.
4. Judy Shelton is in favor of bringing the Federal Reserve inside the Treasury Department and deactivating it.
5. The President prominently hung the portrait painting of President Andrew Jackson behind his desk in the Oval Office.
6. The President wants negative interest rates.
7. The United States is now the largest producer of Oil and Natural Gas in the world and holds more proven petroleum reserves than any country on Earth. Its NG reserves dwarf anything else on the planet.

Consider the following:

Refinance all of the national debt and more for a total of $50 Trillion in federal reserve note currency at an interest rate of -6.5%.

The Federal Reserve will then pay the United States Treasury $3.25 Trillion per year.

The $1 Trillion dollar federal deficit will be wiped out in less than 4 months, allowing for lowering taxes on Americans by at least 25% across the board.

The negative interest rate revenue added to the growth of tax revenue from lower taxes stimulating the economy will top $7 Trillion per year leaving a budget surplus of at least $2.5 Trillion.

Four years of applying such budget surpluses will total a $10 Trillion reduction, and when used to pay down the national debt will leave $12 Trillion remaining achieving a Debt to GDP ratio of 12:22 or less than 55% down from current 106%.

Concurrently issuing Treasury-issued US Notes indexed to gold replacing the fiat federal reserve notes gives the United States great flexibility to leverage its oil and natural gas dominance to further reduce its national debt and liabilities per citizen and to preserve and protect purchasing power.

The extra initial borrowing of $50 Trillion less $22 Trillion US Debt yielding a negative interest rate asset of $28 Trillion can be held on the books and used to offset any remaining national debt.

At the end of the transition from the fiat federal reserve currency to the US Note currency, the $28 Trillion negative interest rate asset held on the books can pay off the remaining $12 Trillion in national debt at a net $28 - $12 = $16 Trillion in US reverse bond assets.

Distributing the reverse bond asset of $16 Trillion across 330 million citizens yields $48,000 for each citizen or nearly $200,000 for a family of four.

To offset inflation, the reset of fiat currency to gold indexed currency leveraged with the oil and NG dominance allows the US purchasing power to remain strong, thus deflating inflationary pressures.

Americans learning how to make things again, repatriating American manufacturing will further reduce the balance of payments and further boost US purchasing power.

Bottom line is America enters a Golden Age. The President has used precisely this description of where he will lead the country.

The Great Trump Reset.


32 posted on 08/01/2020 12:40:38 AM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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To: mrsmith
I think it’s about hurting the economy to hurt Trump.

I think if President Trump wants to implement: to each according to his needs, from each according to his abilities, in these unprecidented times, he should heavily consult his good friend Kim Jong Un. We're all in this together, after all. McConnell's 15-20 not irrational guys should be made to visit a North Korean education facility or face a North Korean antiaircraft gun until they understand the true irrationality of the situation and outbid the Democrats in buying the next election for POTUS Donald J. Trump!.

33 posted on 08/01/2020 12:49:14 AM PDT by Theophilus (we will remember the name of the Lord our God)
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To: Theophilus

” 5-20 not irrational guys should be made to visit a North Korean education facility “

Would love that.
But, less dramatically, they could face that the media is not their friend and does not represent their constituency.
Trump does.


34 posted on 08/01/2020 12:56:38 AM PDT by mrsmith (US MEDIA: " Every 'White' cop is a criminal! And all the 'non-white' criminals saints!")
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To: SuperLuminal
$2400 / vote American! Double or nuthin! Hit me baby one more time!

Schools out forever!

35 posted on 08/01/2020 1:07:28 AM PDT by Theophilus (we will remember the name of the Lord our God)
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To: mrsmith

If they’re “not irrational” than what does that make the bill, the Democrats, 70% the GOP, McConnell, the SCOTUS and the POTUS???


36 posted on 08/01/2020 1:12:35 AM PDT by Theophilus (we will remember the name of the Lord our God)
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To: Theophilus

Lost me.
Don’t even know what you’re referring to as “the bill”.


37 posted on 08/01/2020 1:26:15 AM PDT by mrsmith (US MEDIA: " Every 'White' cop is a criminal! And all the 'non-white' criminals saints!")
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To: Paladin2

I see what you did there


38 posted on 08/01/2020 1:50:53 AM PDT by Oscar in Batangas ( January 20, 2017, High Noon. The end of an error.)
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To: Hostage

The Great Trump Reset.


Great post. Very informative.

The Gold standard will make a return eventually. Interestingly Trump is appointing Fed members who want to return to a gold standard:

https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/21/trump-fed-nominee-advances-in-senate-despite-support-for-gold-standard/


39 posted on 08/01/2020 2:36:57 AM PDT by RandFan (3C)
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To: Theophilus
$2400 / vote American! Double or nuthin! Hit me baby one more time!

A woman who my wife works with said that her neighbors have been having one big party since the Corona checks, ATM cards, and $600 a week deposits have been pouring out of the Treasury.

They are in hog heaven: venture out for weed, booze, cigarettes, and take out food - and then go inside to watch porn all day.

40 posted on 08/01/2020 3:06:28 AM PDT by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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