GOP Excuses for Doing Nothing

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he's been discussing "liability protection" amid conversations on coronavirus relief bill: "We don't need an epidemic of lawsuits on the heels of the pandemic we're already struggling with." https://t.co/T9e2bGILCo pic.twitter.com/TTcjCfZ6M1

— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) July 20, 2020

Mnuchin, speaking in the Oval Office next to Trump, says of the $600 per week jobless benefits set to expire at week’s end that they don’t want to “pay people more money to stay home than go to work.” They are looking at ways to extend jobless benefits, he said

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 20, 2020

Without giving people more money for not working becasue coronavirus is ravaging the country?

If you're just tuning in, key updates on stimulus:

-- Congress all but certain to miss deadline to extend UI;

-- Trump seems successful in pushing Senate GOP to back payroll tax cut

-- WH, Senate GOP at odds over $ 4 CDC, testing

-- GOP to propose no more $ for states/cities

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) July 20, 2020

The GOP doesn't expect this stuff to get through the House, but as Rick Wilson says, the cruelty is the point.  They are also playing to their base, which continues to shrink as a portion of the electorate.  Then again, with Trump failing, if the rank and file don't hold the line and give the crazies somebody to vote for, who will vote for the GOP incumbents?

It's some catch, that Catch-22.

Adding:  this is probably not the litigation Mitch McConnell is "worried" about (Narrator:  he's not worried.  He needs a stick to put in the spokes.)

Teachers unions sued @GovRonDeSantis on Monday over his emergency order pushing schools to fully reopen next month even as coronavirus cases in the state are surging. The suit appears to be the first of its kind across the country, via @elizashapiro https://t.co/aB1Fn9YGu6

— Patricia Mazzei (@PatriciaMazzei) July 20, 2020

There'll be no such lawsuit in Texas because teachers unions are essentially (though not technically) illegal, and because both Abbott and TEA are over a barrel:  if teachers just quit, schools just can't open.  Ever.  They are acutely aware of this.