Proud to Be A Democrat

Sen. Menendez on coronavirus relief negotiations: "What's amazing to me is that there is no sense of urgency by the Republicans."https://t.co/QlqFIXgoru

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 5, 2020

Suddenly *some* Repubs realized… this might just work out not entirely to their advantage…

Lawmakers say they can’t return home without coronavirus deal while White House aides are split on use of executive powers https://t.co/qQgCpOVy6f

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 5, 2020

… Especially since they’ve been very publicly cut out of the negotiations:

The White House and Democratic leaders agreed to try to finalize a deal to address lapsed unemployment benefits and eviction restrictions by the end of this week and hold a vote in Congress next week, suddenly trying to rush stalled talks in the face of growing public and political unrest…

The agreement on a timeline came in a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

The four have been meeting almost daily for a week. Their agreement Tuesday on a specific timeline to reach an overall deal constituted the most concrete progress yet. It suggests that the White House has backed off efforts to pass a stand-alone extension of unemployment benefits — and will also stand down, at least for now, on more recent threats to act unilaterally through executive orders if no deal can be reached with Congress…

The talks came as Senate Republicans on Tuesday began to emphasize that they will need to stay in Washington until a fresh round of pandemic relief aid is enacted, worried about facing the wrath of voters if they go home without one as deaths from the novel coronavirus are rising and the economic recovery has stalled.

The Senate had been scheduled to adjourn for its August recess starting next week, but that is not looking feasible…

“We really went down issue by issue by issue, slogging through,” Schumer said. “They made some concessions which we appreciated; we made some concessions which they appreciated. We’re still far away on a lot of the important issues, but we’re continuing.”

It was unclear what concessions had been made on either side, and Meadows contended that the concessions made by the administration were “far more substantial” than those the Democrats offered.

Schumer also said the Democrats had requested a meeting with the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, for Wednesday to discuss delays in delivering mail…

“I think I’ve made it very clear for some time now if you’re looking for a total consensus among Republicans you’re not going to find it, because we do have divisions about what to do,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters…

“It’s not going to produce a ‘Kumbaya’ moment like we had in March or April where everybody voted aye, but the American people in the end need help,” McConnell said. “And wherever this thing settles between the president of the United States and his team who have to sign it into law, and the Democrats’ not insignificant minority in the Senate and majority in the House, is something I’m prepared to support, even if I have some problems with certain parts of it.”

If you have to shake hands with #MoscowMitch, always count your fingers afterwards. But at least it sounds like he may have decided (or been ordered by his kleptocratic masters) not to push matters to the point where destroying the GOP and sowing the site of its death with salt seems like a preferable alternative to a working majority of American voters.