The House passed the $1.9 trillion bill, overwhelmingly thanks to Democrats. Not a single Senate or House Republican voted for the bill, and one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voted against it.
The relief package is groundbreaking: It sends $1,400 stimulus checks to close to 90% of American households, directs billions to small businesses and schools, pours necessary resources into vaccine distribution, extends unemployment benefits and offers parents an unprecedented child allowance — a cash benefit for families with children. No, it’s not everything progressives wanted. But it’s the most ambitious cash assistance plan I’ve seen in my lifetime.
It didn’t come sooner, though, because Republicans were in charge until seven weeks ago. And Democrats should remind voters of exactly that. Trump and the GOP passed tax cuts in 2017 that disproportionately helped the wealthiest, but when the pandemic hit in 2020, they were out to lunch. Public health messaging was garbled and inconsistent. The President spread dangerous and deadly false information. When the Republican Party did put forward a stimulus bill that sent out cash payments and provided much-needed support for small businesses and communities, Democrats were on board: They supported the bill because it was the right thing to do for a country in crisis.
But now, a year into a deadly pandemic that has killed more than 520,000 Americans — more than all the wars of the past 100 years combined — and left hundreds of thousands of more without jobs, homes or basic stability, Republicans are refusing to come to the rescue.
Democrats have, which is why Americans have gotten the additional help we needed. That’s the message Democrats need to hammer home as they take well-earned credit for what they’ve achieved here.
Taking credit isn’t just so Democrats can pat themselves on the back; it’s so the public understands how and why this happened. Many Americans do not pay close attention to politics, and don’t…
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