Stand and deliver

Personally, I think the guys who won back the Senate deserve the presumption that they know what they’re talking about:

The two newly elected Democratic senators from Georgia pressed White House officials and fellow Senate Democrats on Thursday to act quickly to pass a new round of stimulus checks, arguing that this promise won their party the Senate majority and needs to get done.

The comments by Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael G. Warnock during a private lunchtime call with the Senate Democratic caucus and top White House economic advisers were confirmed by several people with knowledge of them, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussion was private.

Ossoff and Warnock both won special elections in Georgia earlier this month on promises to deliver voters a new round of $2,000 stimulus checks if elected. President Biden made the same pledge to Georgia voters while campaigning for the two candidates, whose victories gave Democrats narrow control of the Senate.

The stimulus checks are a centerpiece of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan, which Democrats are aiming to move quickly through Congress in coming weeks through special budget rules that would allow them to pass the legislation without GOP votes. The checks in the Biden plan actually are $1,400 per person, but would come on top of $600 checks included in the last relief package in December, bringing the total to $2,000.

The arguments from Ossoff and Warnock in favor of fast action on the checks played into a larger sense of urgency among Democrats during the discussion Thursday that Biden’s package must be enacted swiftly, with or without GOP support. Aides to both Ossoff and Warnock declined to comment on the closed-door lunch.

“My strong impression was that there is general unanimity, and it’s strong that we need to be bold and decisive, particularly in putting shots and putting vaccines in people’s arms and putting money in people’s pockets and putting kids back to school,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said. “And one way to put money in people’s pockets is to fulfill our promises on stimulus payments.”

You can draw similar inferences from the fact that Republicans are desperate to stall and greatly reduce the relief package:

cry – and I cannot emphasize this enough – more pic.twitter.com/YELQRjbr9d— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) January 28, 2021

Get people their money, and remember that no voter gives a shit about procedure.