House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made it very clear that “leverage” is more important to her than working with the GOP across the aisle. Earlier this month, when thousands of airline workers received furloughs, the Democratic Speaker of the House stated that her party would lose “leverage” if they immediately rushed out help out-of-work airline staffers.
While Pelosi bides her time and waits for Democrats to increase their leverage, Americans are hurting.
The political factor
Unfortunately, stimulus packages for COVID-19 have become politicized, just like other elements of the virus and responses to it.
Over the course of this year, Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly clashed over the contents of proposed federal aid packages. President Trump and other Republicans remain critical of Democrats for wanting to include bail-outs for Democrat-run states in packages.
Just earlier this month, Pelosi got into a back-and-forth with CNN host Wolf Blitzer about Democrats’ refusal to accept President Trump’s stimulus offer. Pelosi responded by claiming that House Democrats “represent” the American people; the House Speaker then clashed with Blitzer about Republicans not honoring what Democrats brought to the table.
