It looked like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Democratic leaders were well on the way to working out a more extensive relief bill to provide much needed benefits for the American people, when Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch stepped in to convert the Bipartisan Relief Bill to a Republican Bailout Scam.  Acting in the interests of the American people, Senate Democrats shot it down yesterday.

Senate Republicans late Sunday failed to force through a $1.8 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that Democratic lawmakers, union leaders, and progressive advocacy groups condemned as a massive bailout for corporate America that would have done little to address the urgent economic and medical needs of ordinary people.

A procedural motion to advance the Republican bill, formally known as the CARES Act, received just 47 votes Sunday, well short of the 60 needed for passage. Every Senate Democrat present voted no.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) scheduled another procedural vote on the legislation for Monday morning at 9:45 am ET as talks over the bill continued through the evening Sunday.

One of the most contentious sticking points in rapidly moving negotiations over the Republican measure was its call for the creation of a $500 billion business relief program that would be controlled by the Trump Treasury Department, headed by former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin. The fund would set aside around $58 billion for the airline industry and $17 billion for “sectors considered critical to national security,” Roll Call reported.

Democrats and progressive critics condemned the program as a corporate “slush fund” and demanded that any bailout money for businesses come with strict oversight and conditions, such as strong worker protections against layoffs and a permanent ban on stock buybacks.

“In the midst of an unprecedented national crisis, Republicans can’t seriously expect us to tell people in our communities who are suffering that we shortchanged hospitals, students, workers, and small businesses but gave big corporations hundreds of billions of dollars in a secretive slush fund,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement announcing her opposition to the GOP legislation.

Progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are also demanding $2,000 in monthly cash payments to every person in the United States instead of the means-tested, one-time payments proposed by the Republican legislation.

“The job of Congress right now is to do everything we possibly can to protect Americans’ lives and wellbeing—not hand out welfare checks to huge corporations,” Sanders tweeted.

During a press conference Sunday, President Donald Trump refused to vow that none of the bailout money in the Republican stimulus package would go to his own properties…  [emphasis added]

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Here’s a video report from NBC News.

Senate Fails To Advance Coronavirus Stimulus Package, Devastating For Businesses

Personally, I found the reporter quite biased, but the reporter from Bloomberg, who interviewed Liz Warren earlier in the day, wasn’t just biased.  He was patronizing and dismissive!

Elizabeth Warren explains what Democrats want in virus relief bill

This is what Democrats are fighting for. But criminal Fuhrer Trump* and Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch want to give all the money to corporate criminals with no strings attached, including a giant bail-outs for Mar-a-Lago and Trump* Towers.

The Republican Plan would give criminal Fuhrer Trump* and his apostles of greed complete control of almost $1 trillion dollars in relief funds.  The Republican Reich would have no obligation to even tell Congress, the press, or the American people who got money, how much they got, or how they used it.

This was a perfect example of Republican bipartisanship.

RESIST!!