Is It Possible?

Is it possible that Republicans in Congress as so stupid they will throw away chances of winning elections in order to obstruct democrat’s policy?  Are they that fucking stupid?  Congressional Republicans are struggling to persuade voters to oppose President Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan. Leaders of the Republican Party are actively searching for a way to derail the proposed rescue plan.  On Friday they led a final attempt to tarnish the package, labeling it a “payoff to progressives.” The bill, Republicans  said, spends too much and includes a liberal wish list of programs like aid to state and local governments — which they call a “blue state bailout,” though many states facing shortfalls are controlled by Republicans — and increased benefits for the unemployed, which they argued would discourage people from looking for work which has been proven economically false.  These attacks have followed weeks of varying Republican objections to the package, including warnings that it would do little to help the economy recover and grow (it is a rescue not a recovery plan!), that it would add to the federal budget deficit (no more so than Republican tax cuts added to the deficit) and possibly unleash faster inflation (another unproven economic myth), and that Democrats were violating Mr. Biden’s calls for “unity” by proceeding without bipartisan consensus (Republicans are too fucking stupid for unity!). While President  Biden has encouraged Republican lawmakers to get on board with his package, Democrats are moving their bill through Congress using a parliamentary process that will allow them to pass it with only Democratic votes.  The arguments have so far failed to connect, in part because many of its core provisions poll strongly — even with Republicans. Republican arguments have failed to connect, in part because many of its core provisions poll strongly — even with Republicans. More than 7 in 10 Americans now back Mr. Biden’s aid package, according to new polling from the online research firm SurveyMonkey for The New York Times. That includes support from three-quarters of independent voters, 2 in 5 Republicans and nearly all Democrats. The overall support for the bill is even larger than the substantial majority of voters who said in January that they favored an end-of-year economic aid bill signed into law by President Donald J. Trump. More than 7 in 10 Americans now back Mr. Biden’s aid package, according to new polling from the online research firm SurveyMonkey for The New York Times. That includes support from three-quarters of independent voters, 2 in 5 Republicans and nearly all Democrats. The overall support for the bill is even larger than the substantial majority of voters who said in January that they favored an end-of-year economic aid bill signed into law by President Trump (who also called for a $2000 rescue package calling $600 too low.  Democrats who control the House are preparing to approve the package by the end of next week, with the Senate aiming to soon follow with its own party-line vote before unemployment benefits are set to lapse in mid-March. On Friday, the House Budget Committee unveiled the nearly 600-page text for the proposal, which includes billions of dollars for unemployment benefits, small businesses and stimulus checks.  “Critics say my plan is too big, that it cost $1.9 trillion dollars; that’s too much,” Mr. Biden said at an event on Friday. “Let me ask them, what would they have me cut?”  While Mr. Biden has encouraged Republican lawmakers to get on board with his package, Democrats are moving their bill through Congress using a parliamentary process that will allow them to pass it with only Democratic votes. Republicans have also railed against the process Democrats have employed to advance the bill, citing dozens of legislative amendments that Republicans offered in various committees, which Democrats rejected. Last week, top Republican senators complained in a letter to Democratic committee leadership about plans to bypass Senate hearings on the House bill, describing it as “the outsourcing of their own committee gavels to the House.”  The Republican pushback is complicated by the pandemic’s ongoing economic pain, with millions of Americans still out of work and the recovery slowing. It is also hampered by the fact that many of the lawmakers objecting to Mr. Biden’s proposals supported similar provisions, including direct checks to individuals, when Mr. Trump was president. The scattershot critique is a contrast from the last time a president used the parliamentary move, called budget reconciliation, to push a major proposal: the $1.5 trillion tax cut package that Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans passed in 2017 without any Democratic votes. Shortly before the first House hearing on the tax cuts, Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee made a plan to brand the bill as a “tax scam” benefiting the rich and the powerful, before Republicans could sell it as a boon to the middle class.  Republicans are too stupid to realize their best chance to win elections is to get on board and ride the wave of benefits that will be enjoyed by voters when this legislation is signed into law by President Biden.  But as said earlier, Republicans are too fucking stupid and too fucking obsessed with obstruction to look a gift horse in the mouth and jump on board with winning policy.