How Does Pelosi Get Away With It?

Byron York asks a good question: “How does Nancy Pelosi get away with blocking desperately needed aid?” There is no dispute about what happened over the last two to three weeks, as thousands of small businesses were struggling–often unsuccessfully–to stay alive. Nancy Pelosi blocked federal aid to those businesses in order to pursue unrelated political goals.

Pelosi didn’t stand in the way of aid for just an hour or two, or a day or two. She stonewalled for two weeks while small-business people across the country struggled to stay afloat in a time in which public fear of coronavirus and government stay-at-home orders reduced their business income to zero.
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From the very beginning, everybody knew Congress would have to act soon — in days — to replenish the money for PPP, so that other small businesses could have a lifeline. On April 7, more than two weeks ago, the White House sent a letter to Capitol Hill asking for $251 billion in additional funding. Again — everyone knew it would be needed, and needed soon. That was the plan all along. The White House wanted quick action. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hoped the Senate would approve a simple bill — one that provided the $251 billion and did not do anything else — on a voice vote.

That’s when Pelosi came in, in tandem with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. Word got out that Pelosi and Schumer would demand billions more for health care, emergency food aid, and money to state and local governments. They would also insist that half the money be targeted toward women and minorities. April 8, 9, and 10 — days in which Congress could have acted and the money gone out the door to businesses — passed without action. On April 11 came reports there was a “logjam” on the legislation. There was talk of a “bipartisan spending negotiation” — the kind of across-the-table horse-trading that can go on for days and weeks on Capitol Hill as businesspeople try to avoid going under.
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Pelosi’s answer was no — and remember, as Speaker of the House, she is the power player in the relationship with Schumer, who doesn’t control anything. As she blocked aid for businesses, Pelosi tried to burnish her image, going on late-night TV to show off her kitchen — two very expensive-looking refrigerators fully stocked with expensive ice cream. The contrast between Pelosi’s giggly show-and-tell with her favorite goodies and the plight of struggling workers and businesses in the pandemic led the Trump campaign to make a quickie web ad with the punch line, “‘Let them eat ice cream’ — Nancy Antoinette.”

More days passed.
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Still, Pelosi held out. She appeared to feel a remarkable confidence that she would not be skewered in the national media for holding up urgently needed money. And indeed, she was not. In an impressive display of chutzpah, she blamed McConnell for the delay. And so more days passed.

Republicans finally surrendered on the money, $75 billion for hospitals. They agreed to $25 billion for testing that Pelosi added to her demands. The GOP balked on money for states and local governments.

“This was a debate that was largely about nothing,” Politico Playbook declared, accurately. The effect of the debate about nothing was to delay help for those millions of small business owners and employees who need it, while Pelosi played politics and showed off her ice cream stash.

And it is still not done. The bill, now expanded to nearly $500 billion, has passed the Senate, with House passage expected Thursday. That will be April 23 — 16 days after the first letter to Capitol Hill.

Why did it take 16 days for Congress to pass money for small business owners that could have been passed in a small fraction of that time? Because Nancy Pelosi stopped it. Pure and simple.

Pelosi is secure in the knowledge that the nation’s press is on the side of the Democratic Party and will run interference for her, no matter how indefensible her conduct. It is sad, but that is the world we live in.