Senate Dems Push Through $1.9TN Stimulus As Harris Casts First Tiebreaker Democrats are moving to push through President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan with or without - and most likely without - Republican support. Following an hours-long "vote-o-rama" (a sophisticated legislative procedure, for those who aren't familiar), VP Kamala Harris cast her first tie-breaking vote to approve the budget plan in the Senate. The deciding vote came early Friday morning, after about 15 hours of all-night debate, and votes on dozens of amendments. In the end, the Senate found itself in a 50-50 partisan deadlock, allowing Harris to break the tie. But not before a series of amendments were passed to the budget plan that passed the House on Wednesday. Reuters offered an example: the Senate added a measure calling for increased funding for rural hospitals whose resources have been strained by the pandemic. Given the changes approved by the Senate, the revised bill will now be kicked back to the House, which will need to approve the changes and agree on the Senate’s language. After all that is done, there is still one last step: Democrats will come together to craft the final relief bill, and pass it under special budget rules allowing them to circumvent a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The special rule is called "reconciliation", Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer, the legislative leader in the Senate, said the vote was a “giant first step” toward passing comprehensive coronavirus aid. Budget Chairman Bernie Sanders added that adoption means help is on the way to those suffering from an “economic collapse." "Tonight we can say to them we understand the pain that they are experiencing and we are going to do something about it," Sanders said. Dems want to spend the $1.9 trillion to speed COVID-19 vaccines throughout the US, while some of the money would extend to special unemployment benefits that will expire at the end of March and make direct payments to people to help them pay bills and stimulate the economy. Dems also would like to send money to state and local governments dealing the worst health crisis in decades, a measure that Republicans have fought to oppose, arguing it would merely subsidize spendthrift blue states. After 15 hours of debate and an all-night session, VP Kamala Harris cast her first tiebreaking vote. The 51-50 vote paves the way toward the Senate passing Biden’s $1.9 trillion virus relief package. pic.twitter.com/0PUEaewR89— The Recount (@therecount) https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1357674093936574465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Meanwhile, a group of 10 GOP senators who met with Biden at the White House on Monday have sent him a letter pointing to the fact that significant amounts of money already appropriated by Congress have not yet been spent. Tyler Durden Fri, 02/05/2021 - 08:05