House Republicans broke with the president over providing $2,000 in stimulus checks to Americans.
Congressional leaders are clambering to avoid a disastrous government shutdown a day before Christmas after President Donald Trump rejected their $900 billion stimulus deal that would provide relief to millions of Americans.
And as Trump single-handedly halts hundreds of billions of dollars in coronavirus aid, even some Republicans are urging him to drop the matter.
“The best way out of this is for the president to sign the bill and I still hope that’s what he decides to do,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the No. 4 GOP leader, said on Thursday. But Blunt conceded he had “no idea” what Trump will do.
The scramble on Capitol Hill — which has largely emptied out for the holidays — includes a last-minute bid by House Democrats to roughly triple the size of Americans’ stimulus checks to meet Trump’s demands. House Republicans on Thursday morning blocked the effort, setting up a dramatic showdown in Congress next week that could put the president at odds with members of his own party.
It’s the latest chaotic move in the Trump presidency, which has seen multiple shutdowns and deals scuttled at the last minute. The president’s eleventh-hour demands took lawmakers and senior aides by surprise, particularly since Trump left nearly all of the negotiations to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who made no push for the $2,000 stimulus checks that the president is now seeking.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/24/house-gop-blocks-stimulus-checks-boost-450343