Will Swing District GOP Congress Members Really Obstruct Passage Of Biden's COVID-Rescue Bill?

Biden won their districts; his COVID-Rescue bill is popular. Will they commit political suicice to oppose it for McCarthy?

Later this week, the House will vote on Biden's $1.9 billion COVID-rescue plan. It is expected to pass the House, although Scalise is telling anyone who will listen that it will not get one Republican vote. That hard's to believe-- not that he's saying it; I'm sure that he is. What's hard to believe is that his assessment is accurate. Not one GOP vote?

That the bill is immensely popular among Democratic voters doesn't mean anything to Republican members of Congress. The bill has considerable but not majority support among Republican voters and in deep red (mostly rural, politically backward) districts that's the end of the story. Take the fascist-oriented hellhole where northwest Georgia, northeast Alabama and south-central Tennessee all come together. Politically, it's one of the worst places on god's earth. The right-wing Congress members who represent that 7 congressional districts that make up the region don't need independent voters, let along Democrats to win. They can win with brainwashed Republicans alone. This is QAnon country. Fox News is part of the liberal media. These districts, these neo-fascist incumbents with their 2020 win numbers:

• AL-03- Mo Brooks (no opponent)

• AL-04- Robert Aderholt (82.3%)

• AL-05- Mike Rogers (67.5%)

• GA-09- Andrew Clyde (78.6%)

• GA-14- Marjorie Taylor Greene (74.6%)

• TN-03- Chuck Fleischmann (67.3%)

• TN-04- Scott DesJarlais (66.7%)

Forget them and others like them. They are "no" votes without having to read a line of the bill and without having to consider how much the bill would help their backward, hard-pressed COVID-infected districts. None of them needs a single independent voters to back them; each district has enough Republicans so that elections can be won and lost without imputes from Democrats and independents.

But not all Republicans represent districts like that. In fact, yesterday we named 45 Republican Congress members in districts where independent voters decide who wins and loses elections. Let me refine that down to Republican incumbents who will be running in districts that Biden won. These are the districts and the incumbents along with Biden's win number:

• CA-21- David Valadao (54.4%)

• CA-25- Mike Garcia (54.0%)

• CA-39- Young Kim (54.1%)

• CA-48- Michelle Steel (49.7%)

• FL-27- Maria Salazar (51.3%)

• MO-02- Ann Wagner (tie)

• NE-02- Don Bacon (52.2%)

• NY-24- John Katko (53.4%)

• PA-01- Brian Fitzpatrick (52.4%)

• TX-24- Beth Van Duyne (51.9%)

None of them are going to vote for the rescue plan that their own constituents want? Look at some of this polling by Navigator Research from last week. Independent voters massively trust Biden and the Democrats more on COVID relief than the Republicans-- by an astronomical net of 48 points more! Independents also trust Biden and the Democrats more than the Republicans to get Americans back to work and to rebuild the economy.

The overall numbers favor passing Biden's plan-- including 90% of Democrats, 71% of independents and 53% of Republicans! But Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise are telling Congress members in swing districts to vote "no?" This should be interesting.

And on top of that, this morning CNN reported that "More than 150 senior executives from some of the largest American companies across several major industries have lined up behind President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, according to a letter obtained by CNN. The group of executives includes the top executives representing some of the powerful business interests in the US, ranging from bank and investment firms like Goldman Sachs and Blackstone, to technology companies like Google, Intel and IBM, to hospitality companies like Loews Hotels & Co. and airlines including American and United Airlines. Top executives from real estate, insurance and utility firms also signed on to the letter... The weight of the businesses getting behind the proposal provides a boost to Democrats as the House moves towards a final vote on the package later this week, with the Senate slated to follow suit shortly after. Among those signed onto the letter are bold faced names including David Solomon, chairman and chief executive officer at Goldman Sachs; Stephen Schwartzman, the chairman and CEO of Blackstone; Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google; John Zimmer, the co-founder and president of Lyft; Brian Roberts, the chairman and CEO of Comcast and John Stankey the CEO of AT&T."