Dem
51
GOP
49
As you might have heard, the Republicans control one chamber of Congress and, thanks to the filibuster, can block almost anything they want in the other chamber. Given the proximity of the election, the GOP doesn't want to pass ANY bill that might do anything substantive, for fear of giving a "victory" to the Democrats, and thus a potential boost to the Kamala Harris campaign.
Yesterday, there were, in effect, two examples of this, both in the Senate. First up, and as we expected, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced that he would bring the No Kings Act up for a vote. Recall that is the legislation that would amend the Constitution to make clear that, no, presidents cannot break the law with impunity. It didn't even come up for a vote in the House, and it surely won't pass the Senate. However, Congressional Republicans will be doubly on the record as supporting an imperial/dictatorial presidency. And, as we noted previously, Biden could put the matter back in the headlines again by deliberately doing something meant to illustrate the dangers of an unfettered presidency.
Meanwhile, yesterday Schumer brought up a bill that would have raised the child tax credit, ended the Employee Retention Tax Credit program (which has witnessed all kinds of fraud), and reinstated other tax credits for businesses. The bill is bipartisan, having been written by a Democrat (Ron Wyden of Oregon) and a Republican (Jason Smith of Missouri), and having already passed the House by a large margin. But it failed a procedural vote in the Senate, 44-48.
The vote on the tax bill did not break down entirely along partisan lines. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) voted for it, and two of the four independents who caucus with the Democrats, namely Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin (I-WV), voted against it. Still, it's close enough to a party-line vote that the Republicans will get to own the non-passage of the bill. And we suspect it will be boiled down to "The Republicans don't want families to get a tax break, no matter what they might tell you on the campaign trail." (Z)