As I sip my day old coffee this morning, I am pissed at the sense of urgency on the part of Senate Republicans. They have 'punted' on the Coronavirus Relief legislation until 'early next week.'
It was not exactly a secret that the current bill was set to expire by the end of the month - like it was known the day it was originally passed. The Democratic lead House passed their version of pandemic relief in May which, but all accounts, should have motivated the Republican lead Senate to get off their collective asses. Hey, I know there is disagreement among these clowns regarding specific provisions as well as continuing disagreements with Cheeto over payroll tax provisions. Unfortunately, avoiding the issues doesn't solve the problem. I am relatively certain that were individual Senators wondering how they were going to pay for groceries next week or facing the possibility of eviction, their sense of urgency would be upped a notch or two.
The truth about the delay is that it all but guarantees the current relief package will expire before a replacement/extension is in place. All of this in the face of a rise yesterday in unemployment claims, the first increase in claims since March. I'll bet if a tax cut for the wealthy were set to expire next week, the Senate Republicans would go into special non-stop legislative sessions around the clock until a new bill were passed.
Why does it feel like the Senate had hoped by this time COVID-19 would have disappeared, so what's the big deal on an extension of the relief act? Unlike their house counterparts who do not live in Fantasyland, the Senate moved on to more important things confident Trump's prediction of waking-up and finding the virus was magically 'gone' came true. I haven't figured out what other important stuff they worked on since most of the backlog of bills is sitting on Mitch's desk collecting dust.
If anyone thinks that the Senate is looking out for the best interests of the citizens of this country, please send me a tube of the glue you are sniffing since I need to feel more euphoric today.
I am going to take my pissed-off body over to the toaster oven and have a sun dried tomato bagel with my second cup of coffee.