Without a power-sharing agreement, Senate GOP wields power in the minority

Democrats are moving now to fast-track a Covid-19 relief package. If Republicans want to come along, great. Democrats are arguing Republicans can vote for budget reconciliation, a procedural shortcut that would allow Democrats to pass the relief without any GOP votes. 

If Republicans don’t like the plan, they can keep talking to the White House, but the underlying takeaway from the meeting last night – and all the messages from the White House in the days before that – is the President is only willing to negotiate so much.

Republicans’ $618 billion proposal with no state and local funding is not going to cut it. Period. The end.

Bottom line: Biden has the House. Biden has the Senate. He has a procedural process that gives him the chance that pass a $1.9 trillion relief package with just Democratic votes and conveniently, it’s a process that Republicans used just four years ago to jam through a tax plan and try to repeal Obamacare. Democrats are making a two-pronged calculation:

We will see on the second point, but when you are talking about giving people direct checks, expanding unemployment insurance, giving people more money to buy food and raising the minimum wage to $15, you aren’t talking about unpopular ideas. Democratic aides tell CNN over and over again this isn’t repealing Obamacare. They are giving people something, not taking something away and that’s emboldened members to act swiftly and decisively and not give in to talk that they have to unify the country by bringing Republicans onboard with a plan. 

That doesn’t mean that the impact this could have on the debt and deficit isn’t real. That doesn’t mean that Republicans aren’t going to argue that this plan isn’t needed. It’s true that there is still billions from the last package that hasn’t gone out the…