The debate over the size of the next coronavirus relief bill is reopening the same divisions within the Republican Party that spawned the Tea Party movement more than a decade ago, putting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a delicate spot.
McConnell is up for reelection this fall in Kentucky, a state that has been a hotbed of Tea Party activism over the past 10-plus years. His home state colleague, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a Tea Party favorite, is taking an outspoken stand against another large federal relief package.
The situation is eerily similar to 2008, when McConnell was up for reelection for his fifth Senate term. That fall, Congress was under intense pressure to pass an expensive relief bill to stave off a possible depression while there was an unpopular Republican in the White House and a presidential election only weeks away.
The first relief bill that Congress passed, which created the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and which McConnell supported, was later labeled a Wall Street bailout by disgruntled conservatives, who saw it as the apogee of eight years of profligate spending under the George W. Bush administration.
Conservative disillusionment over the lack of fiscal discipline by the Republican establishment in Washington crystalized into the Tea Party revolution that later swept colleagues such as Paul, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) into the Senate in 2010 and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) into the chamber in 2012.
Asked about the conservative backlash to the 2008 bailout legislation, Paul said the “whole Tea Party movement arose out of that because they were sick of Washington Republicans who weren’t conservative anymore.”
Paul says conservatives are feeling the same anger today over the exploding deficit, which was projected to reach $3.8 trillion for 2020 even before lawmakers started negotiating the newest coronavirus relief package: “There’s a lot of frustration.”
Exasperation over the swelling deficit during Bush’s presidency was a factor that contributed to big Republican losses at the polls in 2008, when Barack Obama won the White House and Democrats picked up eight Senate seats while expanding their House majority.
McConnell at a lunch meeting Tuesday with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Republican senators told colleagues he wants to keep the size of the next package at $1 trillion. But that hasn’t satisfied some Tea Party Republicans.
Cruz declared he is a “hell no” on McConnell’s emerging coronavirus relief proposal. He said Republicans “sadly” envision McConnell’s bill as “an opening gambit,” predicting it will soon balloon in cost.
“This is the swamp in a feeding frenzy. Everybody’s lobbyist has their hand out, saying, ‘Look, if you’re spending trillions of dollars, I want to get some.’ And it’s not right,” he said.
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"hell no" is right. Enough.