Democratic leaders have strong dynamics on their side as Congress prepares for its first vote on economic aid for the COVID-19 pandemic: Would any Democrat dare to cast the vote to overturn the first initiative of President Joe Biden?
A very slim 10-seat Democratic majority in the House of Representatives leaves little room for defections in the face of strong Republican opposition, and there is no margin in the Senate where Democrats dominate only because of Vice President Kamala Harris’s runoff vote. Internal disputes among Democrats remain over issues such as raising the minimum wage, how much financial aid should go to the burdened state and city governments, and whether emergency unemployment benefits should be extended for another month.
Still, as the House Budget Committee plans to pass the $ 1.9 trillion, 591-page package on Monday, there is no indication that any Democrat is willing to embarrass Biden with a notorious defeat a month later. having assumed the presidency.
A setback of that magnitude would deliver the first blows to President Biden; the new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York; and California Democrat Nancy Pelosi in what could be her last term as House of Representatives. It could also affect Democratic congressmen in general, exposing the party to future repercussions for the 2022 election should they fail to unite effectively against such blatant enemies as the pandemic and the freezing of the US economy.
“You would think very seriously before casting a decisive vote against the legislative agenda of a president coming from your own party,” said Ian Russell, a longtime Democratic adviser. However, Russell warned, legislators will have to decide “on their own how their vote is going to favor” their own states.
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