Warren Challenges McConnell: Does GOP Have Heart for $2K Checks?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., took Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to task, asking if the GOP had the "heart" to back President Donald Trump's call for $2,000 stimulus checks to individuals.

Warren tweeted Wednesday:

"I'm 100% on board with $2,000 survival checks for struggling families. House and Senate Dems are united on this. What do you say, @SenateMajLdr McConnell? Does your caucus have the heart to give the American people the relief they've needed for months?"

Trump did more than ask for the boosted payouts to Americans amid the state-led coronavirus shutdowns and restrictions. He also implored Congress to cut out the give-aways to foreign countries and special interest groups.

The latter would pay for the former, but it has taken half a year to get to this point, and most of Congress fled Washington, D.C., to go home for Christmas.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote to colleagues Wednesday that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., must approve to proceed with a unanimous consent request to boost the payments to $2,000, from the $600 that was part of the pandemic relief package approved late Monday.

"If the president truly wants to join us in $2,000 payments, he should call upon Leader McCarthy to agree to our unanimous consent request," Pelosi wrote in a letter to House Democrats.

"The entire country knows that it is urgent for the president to sign this bill, both to provide the coronavirus relief and to keep government open."

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had proposed larger stimulus payments, but it was blocked by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

Hawley tweeted Tuesday night:

".@realDonaldTrump is right – workers deserve much more than $600, as I have repeatedly said & fought for. And there's obviously plenty of $$ to do it – look at what Congress threw away on corporate giveaways & foreign buyouts. Let's get it done"

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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