Last Updated on March 24, 2020
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) intimated in an interview on CNBC this morning that she will shelve the House Democrats $2.1 trillion stimulus proposal – which was roundly criticized – and try to pass the Republican-authored bill in the Senate via the process of unanimous consent.
“Is there any chance that by the end of the day, I know that we have disparate bills, that we can just come together in unusual showing of non-partisanship? Because we know that there are probably about a hundred and fifty million people who watching and listening to you, and wanna know whether they’re gonna have a job on Friday,” the CNBC host asked Pelosi.
Pelosi seemed to misinterpret the question as a proclamation that 150 million people were actually watching the interview live, saying, “I’m glad you have such a large audience… I think there is real optimism that we could get something done in the next few hours.”
“We’ve been working together in terms of the policy issues there, great progress has been made,” Pelosi continued, later replying, “I think so. Yeah, I do” when asked if she thought the roughly $1.8 trillion Senate package could be passed on Tuesday.
The current Republican Senate proposal includes protection for workers and small businesses, as well as emergency relief checks of $1200 for individuals and $2400 for couples. It remains to be seen whether it will receive enough votes to pass the Senate.
The House Democrat bill included provisions for “racial pay equity,” corporate board diversity, election auditing, newspaper bailouts, airplane emissions standards, and other partisan wishlist items unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic.
Senator Ted Cruz gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor Monday in which he asked, “What in the hell do emissions standards on an airplane have to do with this crisis?”
