Stimulus Vote to Test Republican Unity Under Election Pressures
- Vulnerable Republicans’ ideas left out of scaled-down bill
- Democrats face McConnell charge of ‘stonewalling’ virus relief
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Senate leaders will be trying to hold their parties together for a vote Thursday to advance a slimmed-down stimulus bill that Democrats have already rejected, with both sides jockeying for advantage in public perceptions two months before the election.
A far bigger task looms for Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who crafted a White House-backed proposal that may not go far enough to help vulnerable incumbents in his caucus. That was the price of securing the votes of fiscal hawks worried about adding to a deficit already forecast at $3.3 trillion this year.