On Wednesday, writing for The Washington Post, conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin noted that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is actively hurting his party's chances of keeping the majority with his draconian stance against assisting state and local governments.
"Let’s review where things stand," wrote Rubin. "The economy shrank by 4.8 percent in the first quarter, which includes only a couple of weeks of coronavirus-related disruption. The second quarter’s GDP in all likelihood will look like something from the Great Depression (as much as a 30 percent drop, according to some experts) ... McConnell’s response to all this is to tell states to go bankrupt and confirm judges just as matters are about to get much worse for state and local employees."
"McConnell’s indifference to the burgeoning train wreck in state and local government, we see in poll after poll, is out of sync with voters’ desire for more government involvement and federal aid," wrote Rubin. "The latest Morning Consult poll shows that '74 percent of registered voters, including 84 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of Republicans, agreed that the federal government should be responsible for providing financial support to states during the coronavirus pandemic.' Note, that’s 65 percent of Republicans."
"It’s not clear this is even popular in Kentucky, where McConnell is standing for reelection," continued Rubin. "The University of Kentucky is already laying off and furloughing employees, and the state assembly is cutting libraries and forgoing raises for public K-12 teachers ... His Democratic opponent, Amy McGrath, is pummeling McConnell for his willingness to bail out large corporations but not his state’s teachers, firefighters, health-care workers, etc."
"One wonders how Republican incumbents already facing tough reelection races (e.g. Susan Collins of Maine, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Martha McSally of Arizona) are going to explain this to laid-off first responders, teachers, nurses at city hospitals, librarians and others," concluded Rubin. "Even if McConnell tried, it would be hard to come up with a position and set of priorities more likely to enrage his members’ constituents."
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