Varney: Why Congress will strike a relief bill deal before leaving town
'With 89 days to the election, austerity is not a vote winner'
Here we go again. Negotiations in Congress are going down to the wire. The media follows every tiny development, every statement. We are led to believe it’s a nail-biter.
It’s happening now with the stimulus negotiations. We breathlessly report the comings and goings of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Will we get a deal?
Of course we will! Maybe I’m going out on a limb here, but I simply can't believe that when Congress leaves town Friday, they'll leave with no deal. Can you imagine, all those politicians going back to their constituents, right before an election, with no taxpayer money to throw around? No more help for virus victims.
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That’s not the way things work, now is it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks as she stands next to Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Associated Press)
I’ll go further: not only will there be a deal, but it will contain all kinds of spending that have nothing to do with the virus. A politician’s vote is a negotiation. A politician can be persuaded to vote for something they might not be enthusiastic about, but they'll vote for it, if their pet project is fully funded.
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This is not the best system, but it’s the system we've got.
So here's my prediction: there will be a deal. Congress will authorize spending somewhere north of a trillion dollars. There will be money for individuals, for businesses, for cities and states. And of course there will be a lot of hand wringing about the debt we're building up.
But we will spend the money. With 89 days to the election, austerity is not a vote winner.
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Adapted from Stuart Varney's "My Take" monologue on "Varney & Co." on Aug. 5, 2020.
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