Trump Bump

Trump finally signed the COVID relief bill after threatening to veto it because it did not offer payments of $2,200 to Americans rather than the payments of $600 that his own administration agreed to in a compromise.  Apart from a break in unemployment benefits caused by his tardiness, though, everything should go smoothly after that, especially now the the government will be fund for nine months, by which time the pandemic might be over and President Biden may have secured further funding for COVID relief.  Biden has called this bill a down payment.

Trump apparently agreed to sign the bill only after getting assurances from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that the Senate would vote to increase payments to Americans to $2,200, as the House is already planning to vote on that as well.  But I have a terrifying suspicion that Trump made McConnell promise something else.  I think he made McConnell promise not to stand in the way of any U.S. Senator who approves of a challenge to the electoral vote count in Congress a week from this Wednesday by Republican House members.

The electoral vote count in Congress may be scheduled for January 6, but don't expect House Republicans to suddenly realize that Joe Biden is President-elect through . . . an epiphany.