It aims to help Americans to mitigate the impact of the pandemic

Republican leader thwarts Trump's $ 2,000 subsidy bid

McConnell opposes Trump's proposed subsidy increase.

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The leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Senator Mitch McConnell, obstructed an effort by President Donald Trump to raise the value of a subsidy for Americans to mitigate the impact of the Corona pandemic, refusing to include an urgent vote in the council’s agenda on a bill to raise the $ 600 subsidy. To $ 2000 per person.

McConnell said in the Senate that the bill passed by the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Democrats, and seeks to meet Republican Trump's demand to raise the value of the subsidy "has no realistic way to pass it quickly in the Senate."

McConnell controls the Senate agenda and is opposed to increasing the subsidy.

He had proposed an alternative bill that combines the $ 2,000 subsidy with clauses unacceptable to Democrats who might block its passage.

With a new Congress sworn in on Sunday, efforts to increase the subsidy from the $ 600 already approved by Congress seem certain to thwart.

"The Senate will not succumb to pressure to make it rush to put more borrowed money into the hands of wealthy Democrat friends who don't need help," McConnell said.

Democrats assert that the aid is intended for people who need it most in the face of a health crisis that has killed nearly 340,000 people in the United States, but McConnell complained that the aid was not intended to help the needy.

"Let the comrades vote," Democratic Senator Gary Peters told CNN.

Mitch McConnell can do that.

He simply does not want that, and the American people will be hurt. ”

Trump has stepped up his pressure on his fellow Republicans to back the bigger aid, in a series of tweets in recent days.

He wrote on Twitter early last Wednesday, "$ 2000, as soon as possible."

• McConnell considered raising the subsidy "there is no realistic way to get it swiftly."

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