A Note About Obstruction
So of course, as per usual, Republicans have been complaining to anyone who will listen about how the Democrats in Congress are the real culprits holding up COVID relief instead of the party that’s literally known these days for obstruction, the Republicans. Le sigh.
But what happened when Trump, of all people, demanded more money in stimulus checks for hurting Americans and Democrats brought it to the floor of the House for a unanimous consent vote? Republicans blocked it, that’s what happened.
For those who don’t know, unanimous consent is the fastest way to pass legislation. It involves skipping all the debates, hearings, et cetera, and simply voting yes or no on a simple, single-topic bill. But in order to prevent misuse of such a legislative mechanism, it requires 100% approval in order to pass. It’s a brilliant piece of legislative machinery intended to help pass legislation in times of emergency.
And it was used well and wisely by Democrats in this situation. Pandemic relief is an emergency for a great many Americans as well as our economy as a whole. While this gets spouted regularly by Republicans hoping you can’t see them beyond what they say, I have to wonder why the second round of economic stimulus was left hanging for months for the sole purpose of trying to protect from legal action an employer who forces their employees to work in unsafe conditions during a pandemic.
So let’s leave this conversation clear on what actually happened here. Republicans say that COVID relief is important and damn the Dems for refusing … to let employers abuse workers as part of the bill. But a perfect opportunity to prove themselves non-hypocritical in their stance on relief for typical Americans lies fallow because … I’m not even sure why they said no. I haven’t seen any public statements about it since it happened. Crickets. I’m sure it will be about the deficit they only complain about when Dems want to help the non-wealthy if they do talk about it, but it’s still crickets publicly.
What actually happened here is Dems proved themselves willing to rise to the challenge of helping America through this crisis, and Republicans said no. Almost unanimously. So who’s the obstructionists? Certainly not the Dems.
