https://youtu.be/ZlKBm0RZJLo
BOOM
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1343812305239289858
1:53 AM · Dec 29, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
Give the people $2000, not $600. They have suffered enough!
https://twitter.com/_nalexander/status/1343715308620623876
Senator Sanders will filibuster any attempt for the Senate to override Trump's veto for the NDAA until a vote for the stimulus increase to $2000 is brought to the floor.
This may force the Senate to stay in session until the New Year.
7:27 PM · Dec 28, 2020·Twitter Web App
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https://twitter.com/_nalexander/status/1343715629694668805
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This will also mess with the campaign schedules of Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler–both Georgia Senators who want to be in their home state as they run for reelection.
7:29 PM · Dec 28, 2020·Twitter Web App
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/28/bernie-sanders-filibuster-delay-defense-veto-override-451697
https://prospect.org/politics/democrats-plot-to-keep-senate-in-session-over-2000-payments-checks-sanders-mcconnell/
By BURGESS EVERETT
12/28/2020 07:22 PM EST
Sen. Bernie Sanders will filibuster an override of President Donald Trump’s defense bill veto unless the Senate holds a vote on providing $2,000 direct payments to Americans.
“McConnell and the Senate want to expedite the override vote and I understand that. But I’m not going to allow that to happen unless there is a vote, no matter how long that takes, on the $2,000 direct payment,” Sanders said in an interview on Monday night. The Vermont independent can’t ultimately stop the veto override vote, but he can delay it until New Year’s Day and make things more difficult for the GOP.
The House passed the payment boost sought by Trump and Democratic leaders on Monday evening, and Trump said the Senate has agreed to “start the process” on a stimulus checks vote when he signed the $900 billion relief bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has yet to address the timing of such a vote.
Under Senate rules, Sanders has the ability to keep the chamber in during the holiday week and likely mess with the campaign schedules of Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.). Those two face Jan. 5 runoff races for control of the Senate against Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, who are both campaigning on the $2,000 checks.
A source close to Sanders said the Senate races were a factor in his decision — part of a bid to keep Perdue and Loeffler in D.C. and focus the campaign on their position regarding the $2,000 checks. Sanders also threatened to shut down the government earlier this month if the coronavirus relief bill did not include direct payments; ultimately it included checks of up to $600 and the government stayed open, though now Trump wants to go much higher.
Though veto overrides can be filibustered, as Sanders plans to do, it is a rare procedural move because the veto override already requires 67 votes and the filibuster is simply a delay tactic, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Sanders said he hopes McConnell allows a vote on the checks on Wednesday.
“The American people are desperate, and the Senate has got to do its job before leaving town,” Sanders said. “It would be unconscionable, especially after the House did the right thing, for the Senate to simply leave Washington without voting on this.”
It’s not clear whether there are 60 votes in the Senate for the $2,000 checks, which would require at least 12 Republicans to join with the chamber’s 48 Democratic Caucus members. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to try and force a vote on the House-passed bill Tuesday, though any one member of the Senate can object and many conservatives oppose that level of spending.
Still, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) endorsed the $2,000 checks on Monday night and some House Republicans supported it on the floor, demonstrating a split in the party over whether to give Trump the checks he’s demanding as he prepares to leave office in January.
https://prospect.org/politics/democrats-plot-to-keep-senate-in-session-over-2000-payments-checks-sanders-mcconnell/
…This means that, as long as Sanders objects, McConnell cannot begin the process of holding votes on the defense bill until Wednesday. There has to be an intervening day between that and the final vote, making Thursday—New Year’s Eve—the intervening day, and Friday—New Year’s Day—the day of the final vote to override the veto.
Throughout this time, Democrats can seek to bring up the CASH Act for a vote, and McConnell will have to object each time. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has already announced that he would move to call up the CASH Act on Tuesday.
“Every Senate Democrat is for this much-needed increase in emergency financial relief, which can be approved tomorrow if no Republican blocks it,” Schumer said in a statement. “There is no good reason for Senate Republicans to stand in the way.”
Looming over this is the Senate runoff elections in Georgia, where Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock have made the $2,000 checks the primary closing argument of their campaigns. Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) had to personally call Trump on Christmas to beg him to sign the COVID relief package, which Trump threatened to reject because the $600 direct payments were “ridiculously low.” Perdue was running ads about the package before Trump blasted it.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) said last week she would “consider” voting for $2,000 checks, while Perdue hasn’t given an explicit answer. If McConnell continually rejects a vote on the payments all week, it only bolsters the Democratic argument that Republicans alone are denying the public needed relief. A new Data for Progress poll shows that $2,000 checks have the support of 78 percent of the public, with robust majorities from every subgroup, including Republicans. Perdue and Loeffler would have to explain to voters why Senators are stuck in Washington over New Year’s holding this up.
Of course, McConnell could decide to just allow a floor vote. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have expressed some support for the payments, and it could get the 60 votes it would likely need to pass. McConnell could also set up a “side by side” vote, where the payments are paired with some Republican agenda item: cuts to unemployment benefits, or McConnell’s long-sought corporate liability shield, or maybe changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which Trump has also demanded. Sanders would also object to that, asking for a clean vote.
While Sanders does not have the power to get a bill with $2,000 payments to Trump’s desk on his own, he does have the power to play total hardball and inconvenience as many Senators as possible. And Democrats are ready to back him up on this one. There is no daylight between Sanders’ strategy and Schumer’s, from everything I’m seeing. Democrats have latched onto a populist issue they believe will play well in the Georgia elections, and they are taking it as far as it can go.
McConnell, meanwhile, has the ability to either allow or disallow a vote, with his Senate majority potentially hanging in the balance. We should know what McConnell’s going to do when he makes remarks on the Senate floor, Tuesday at noon ET.