Quote (gnarjay @ 28 Feb 2024 22:44)
Democrats voted for the CARES act because it 1) was necessary at the time and 2) they ideologically agreed with it. (In fact, Democrats would have liked even more covid stimulus).
Republicans ideologically disagreed with covid stimulus all along, but voted for it in 2020 out of sheer necessity. By the spring of 2021, with the vaccines being available and rolling out at a good pace, this necessity was gone, so why should they vote for a policy they disagreed with? Should they have betrayed their ideology and policy preferences, just to uphold the superficial appearance of "bipartisanship" or "responsibility"?
By the way: Democrats in March/April 2020 were advocating for "taking covid seriously" and for even longer and harsher lockdowns. Voting down covid relief at the same time would have been politically fatal - "we want to shut down your livelihood, tough luck if that causes you to starve/lose your house etc". The rest of their positions on covid left them no other choice than to vote in favor of the covid checks, no matter if that helped Trump or not.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Feb 28 2024 08:39pm