Oct. 15, 2020, 10:57 AM EDT
By Steve Benen
Shortly after midnight, Donald Trump published his latest missive on a possible economic aid package, insisting that Republicans are "ready to go," but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) "couldn't care less" about helping the economy. As presidential lies go, it was a doozy.
In reality, Pelosi and House Democrats have already passed two ambitious aid packages, indifferent to the fact that the proposals would give the economy a significant pre-election boost while Trump seeks re-election. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have made it abundantly clear to the White House that they're staunchly opposed to any robust effort to help the economy.
And that, in turn, has led to a question that's lacked an obvious answer: Why, exactly, are GOP lawmakers so opposed to giving the economy a boost ahead of Election Day?
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Bloomberg News had an interesting report on this yesterday:
A GOP strategist who has been consulting with Senate campaigns said Republicans have been carefully laying the groundwork to restrain a Biden administration on federal spending and the budget deficit by talking up concerns about the price tag for another round of virus relief. The thinking, the strategist said, is that it would be very hard politically to agree on spending trillions more now and then in January suddenly embrace fiscal restraint.
The Washington Post's Greg Sargent added, "It's also likely that a big package now would put the economy in a somewhat better position early next year, when Biden (should he win) would take over. This, too, is probably what Republicans want to avoid."
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the rest of the GOP leadership know that blocking an economic aid package will lead to a lot of unnecessary suffering. But they're thinking less about 2020 and more about 2021: if the Biden/Harris ticket prevails, as now appears likely, Republicans will magically return to their pre-2017 posture, forget everything they said during Trump's (and George W. Bush's) presidency, and demand sweeping austerity measures.
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In other words, Republicans are blocking Trump's economic goals today in order to stand in the way of Biden's economic goals tomorrow. If/when a Democratic White House looks to Capitol Hill to create a strong and lasting economic recovery, McConnell is laying the groundwork now to say no.
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