Posted on 02/05/2021 9:21:13 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Democrats moved to push through President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan with or without - most likely without - Republican support. Following an hours-long "vote-o-rama" (a sophisticated legislative procedure, for those who aren't familiar), VP Kamala Harris cast her first tie-breaking vote to approve the budget plan in the Senate.
The deciding vote came early Friday morning, after about 15 hours of all-night debate, and votes on dozens of amendments. In the end, the Senate found itself in a 50-50 partisan deadlock, allowing Harris to break the tie in a 0530ET vote...
Vice President Harris casts her first tie-breaking vote in the Senate-at 5:30am after 10 hours of debate-passing the budget resolution that allows for the passage of Biden’s $1.9 trillion covid relief package in the coming weeks without Republican support. pic.twitter.com/N013pnsPXO — Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) February 5, 2021
... but not before a series of amendments were passed to the budget plan that passed the House on Wednesday. Reuters offered an example: the Senate added a measure calling for increased funding for rural hospitals whose resources have been strained by the pandemic.
Shortly before the final vote, Democrats upped the pressure on Republicans by using amendments to reverse three earlier Trump-era votes that Republicans had won. This involved stripping support for the Canada-to-United States Keystone XL pipeline that Biden has blocked and support for hydraulic fracking to extract underground oil and natural gas.
Also overturned was a Republican amendment barring coronavirus aid to immigrants living in the United States illegally.
Given the changes approved by the Senate, the revised bill will now be kicked back to the House, which will need to approve the changes and agree on the Senate’s language. After all that is done, there is still one last step: Democrats will come together to craft the final relief bill, and pass it under special budget rules allowing them to circumvent a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The special rule is called "reconciliation",
Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer, the legislative leader in the Senate, said the vote was a “giant first step” toward passing comprehensive coronavirus aid. Budget Chairman Bernie Sanders added that adoption means help is on the way to those suffering from an “economic collapse."
"Tonight we can say to them we understand the pain that they are experiencing and we are going to do something about it," Sanders said.
Dems want to spend the $1.9 trillion to speed COVID-19 vaccines throughout the US, while some of the money would extend to special unemployment benefits that will expire at the end of March and make direct payments to people to help them pay bills and stimulate the economy. Dems also would like to send money to state and local governments dealing the worst health crisis in decades, a measure that Republicans have fought to oppose, arguing it would merely subsidize spendthrift blue states.
Meanwhile, a group of 10 GOP senators who met with Biden at the White House on Monday have sent him a letter pointing to the fact that significant amounts of money already appropriated by Congress have not yet been spent.
In a tweet, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, who, along with his colleague, Sen. Raphael Warnock, tipped the Senate into Democratic control in an early-January runoff, fired off a tweet minutes after the vote that got a lot of attention on twitter, as Dems reminded the GOP how the Georgia special election played into their control of the Senate.
And with Vice President @KamalaHarris casting the crucial tie-breaking vote, at 5:30am after 14 hours of debate, the Senate has passed a $1.9 trillion budget for COVID relief. Georgia voters made this possible. — Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) February 5, 2021
When it comes to the stimulus checks, senators delivered a message to the Biden administration during an early Thursday vote that direct payments should be tailored to those who need the money the most (what some on the left might call "means testing). The Senate voted 99-1 to recommend that high-income earners not qualify for a new round of government checks that could amount to $1.4K for individuals (and possibly $3K per child, if Mitt Romney has his druthers, though it looks like his statement from yesterday was more about virtue signaling).
WOOHOO! FREE MONEY!
Democrats will own it
Was hoping Manchin would step up and demonstrate his power.
$1400??? You promised $2000 you cheap moneybags.
Saw her triumphant tie-breaking picture elsewhere.
She got her botox injections for her forehead in time so the above the mask pictures show her at her best. No visible age lines.
That kind of stuff is important to a nation.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Senator Pierre Delecto (aka Mitt Romney) agreed to vote with the GOP so Kommie Harris could be cast as the savior of the bill.
Could have been done months ago, but the Uniparty didn't want to give Trump a "win" heading into the election. These people are truly scum.
Now it’s time for the quo warranto.
Harris is not an Natural Born Citizen according to the definition the Senate stated in it’s Resolution 511 (2007). In that document the Senate stated John McCain was a Natural Born Citizen because he was ‘born of American citizen parents on a US Military base ...’. In doing so it clarifies that location of birth is not the determining factor of citizenship, but the citizenship of the parents is. Both India and Jamaica, the countries of origin of Harris’ parents, also define citizenship by the parents’ citizenship of the child.
Harris cannot qualify as VP because she is NOT a Natural Born Citizen, by the Senate’s own standards. Her tie-breaking vote is a legal nullity.
Agree. They aren't going to reform and become Tea Party budget misers just because WE don't get money. We lose anyway. The extra $600 will go to Planned Parenthood, abortion counselors in foreign countries, and PBS. Plus pork items for Mitch and Schumer, et al. Fiscal responsibility and debt reduction? Don't make us laugh.
So, as I say, all America wants to know....
Where
is
my
government
money????
Did you notice that she was wearing two masks? She had a white one under her black outer mask. Clearly following Xoe’s lead while at the same time showing how “woke’ she is.
Insightful. Pierre thinks he has a suave, man about town way with the ladies. Stepped aside to allow Harris the spotlight.
He did. Are you surprised?
Joe Manchin is a smooth talking ASSHOLE who continues to fool the folks of WV.
He is an utterly worthless LIBERAL.
Welcome to the Democratic People’s Republic of America!
To paraphrase a Latinx people’s prophet:
“Laws? We don’t need no steenking laws!”
The future is here.
Welcome to the Democratic People’s Republic of America!
To paraphrase a Latinx people’s prophet:
“Laws? We don’t need no steenking laws!”
The future is here.
Isn’t this the package that hands out billions more in cash to foreign countries?
Superspeader breaks tie. “WHERE’S OUR DOUGH JOE!”💸💸💸💸
And we are on our way to SERFDOM!
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury.
After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”-Alexander Fraser Tytler
that 1400$ will buy 2 cases of 223 ammo, or in the rats case, 70 pizzas.
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