2020 sucked for all of us. But it was really bad for California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
One Senate GOP aide noted that members held press conferences to push back on the bill, but that the capacity to sustain and prosecute an argument through the press wasnt there, in part because of former President Donald Trump.
We were spending the early part of the year dealing with the insurrection and impeachment trial and then we jumped right into passage, the aide said. So the attention of the D.C. media wasnt on this legislation, it was on the fallout of Jan 6.
In the absence of a cohesive strategy from congressional GOP leaders or the party apparatus, individual Republicans like Gingrich and GOP-aligned outside groups were left to mount their own attacks against Bidens American Rescue Plan. Some criticism focused on pet projects within the legislation. Others accused Democrats of using the shadow of a pandemic to expand the welfare state.
This bill was so extreme and so little about it was actually Covid relief, said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, which has accused Democrats of leveraging the latest legislative response to the Covid-19 crisis to advance partisan priorities at the expense of everyday Americans.
But other criticisms of the bill caused headaches. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), likened the bills $5 billion fund for Black farmers to reparations. And after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) slammed Democrats for opposing an amendment that would have excluded prisoners from receiving relief checks, critics were quick to point out that he voted for the second relief package last December despite knowing it contained no provision to stop inmates from receiving such payments.
None of the attack lines seemed to resonate with voters, who began receiving stimulus checks as early as last weekend and appear overwhelmingly supportive of the law. A CBS-YouGov survey released on Sunday showed 71 percent of adults believe the American Rescue Plan will benefit the middle class more than wealthy Americans. The bills passage coincides with an uptick in vaccinations and recognition from Democrats and allied teachers unions that schools need to reopen soon which together have the potential for improving the electoral landscape for Democrats as they try to keep both chambers of the Congress.
Thats left the GOP with little left to do but bank on the possibility that voters will, over time, simply forget the ways in which the law impacted them.
I think once the sugar high of the stimulus checks wears off as much as they are needed and are important the bill is going to sink itself over time, if its remembered at all, said another Senate GOP aide. Its at the peak of its popularity right now and the more it becomes unpopular well pound against them, added another.
Inside the White House, the absence of a sustained GOP pushback to the bill did not come as a particular shock.
Aides had long felt that Biden had the upper hand and that Trump had tied his own party in political knots. The former president had pushed for Congress to pass $2,000 direct checks in December and blasted Republican leaders, like then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, when they declined to include them in a relief package. He had also added trillions of dollars to the deficit through a mix of tax breaks to the wealthy and Covid-related legislation with little pushback from his party. What credible argument could Republicans attempt to put forward that would resonate with Americans and enough Democrats to block the package, Biden aides wondered.
John Anzalone, who worked as chief pollster to the Biden campaign and remains a close outside adviser, said the Republican response was both late and head-scratching. The GOP didnt push back on the bill as a deficit buster. Instead they framed it as unrelated to Covid, which Bidens team felt only alienated voters who directly tied the virus to their economic plights and saw elements of the bill like childcare tax credits and lowering healthcare costs as critical to getting past the pandemic.
This is just really mind-boggling, Anzalone said. At a time that were going through three or four crises at once, they have basically just punted. They've completely punted.
While the White House may have been pleased with the lack of a sustained pushback from Republicans, there were still questions about how to handle it. For many, Bidens pledge to be a unifying president meant that they had to at least show they were trying to win over GOP votes. And, early on, there was some genuine belief that they could get a handful.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), a Biden ally, said he was encouraged when the president sat down with 10 Republicans in the Oval Office in late February. His optimism faded however when the GOP officials, led by Maine Sen. Susan Collins, floated a $600 billion alternative. He believed that the White House would inevitably have to use reconciliation, a budget mechanism that allows for expedited passage of a bill with simple-majority approval.
But I thought what would happen once we were on that pathway is that in the end, for the final vote, that you would get maybe two, three or four Republicans, Casey added. I was not shocked, but I was a little surprised that it was unanimous against it.
Republicans used the flimsiness of Bidens outreach to decry that he had reneged on his pledge to seek a middle ground. But inside the GOP, there were concerns that process arguments werent moving the needle. A third Senate GOP aide argued that the attack lines surrounding the absence of bipartisan outreach went over the heads of most Americans.
We got beat on this one, the aide said, in a blunt assessment of their partys response.
As Republicans complained about the partisan nature of the laws construction, the White House settled on a new talking point: While the bill may not have the support of the GOP in Washington, they contended, it was still bipartisan because it was backed by a growing list of Republican governors and state and local officials who urged its passage.
On that front, they benefited from the polls, which showed healthy GOP support for the measure, and by local Republicans who, in many cases, embraced the cash that would end up flowing to their cities and states. Casey said he was on a call Friday with a bipartisan group of county commissioners. I didn't hear any of them say Hey, we don't need the money, Casey said. I didn't hear any of the (national) Republican arguments.
Asked about Republican critiques that the local government money was effectively a bailout of liberal cities like San Francisco, Jeff Williams, the mayor of Arlington, Texas, said the bill relies on an established and agreed-upon formula the federal government has used for decades.
Williams, a registered Republican, also likened the pandemic to a natural disaster, but instead of leveling homes and hollowing out businesses physically, it took a toll on the localities in an economic sense.
We didn't say it was a bailout for Houston when they suffered the flood here, Williams continued. Same thing for New Orleans when they were flooded in Hurricane Katrina. We didn't say we were bailing New Orleans out. Basically, what we're doing is taking care of a natural disaster and helping our cities, counties and states get back.
With the relief bill nearing passage during the last few weeks, Republicans recentered their messaging once again, this time to the Southern border, where a wave of migrants and unaccompanied children have overwhelmed facilities and created a new political vulnerability for Biden. But those attacks arent meant to damage the relief bill so much as move it out of the political spotlight.
They weren't a month ago thinking oh well, we're going to be rescued by the border, when Republicans voted against the package, Anzalone said. It doesn't absolve them in any way from basically being partisan and politicians in a time of economic emergency.
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Republicans on Bidens Covid bill: We bungled this one - POLITICO