Thread by @ChuckCBPP

With the Senate GOP expected to unveil its opening proposal next week, it seems important to recall when they initially staked out their position of a scaled-back fiscal response and how much has changed since then:

Thread

In late May, Senator McConnell said that “You could anticipate the decision being made on whether to go forward in about a month. And it will be narrowly crafted, designed to help us where we are a month from now, not where we were three months ago.”
cnb.cx/2OFmLcx

The GOP was advocating a two-step approach: aggressive re-openings which would allow for a fiscal retreat. As the President Trump in early June said, “We’re opening and we’re opening with a bang.”

Those re-openings quickly failed as infection rates spiked across the Sun-belt. The current situation is summed up in this must-read from @jimtankersely and @bencasselman:
nyti.ms/2WtoGVP

The question now: Will the Senate GOP adapt its approach to the situation today from how they assumed it would be today?
Will the new Senate GOP plan recognize that its assumption underlying the earlier McConnell call for fiscal retreat – successful re-openings – has collapsed?

Short version of our paper that makes this case:

CARES largely worked

Improvements needed to address hardship

Aggressive re-openings strategy is failing in real-time

Fiscal retreat would compound this failure

Robust fiscal package urgently needed
bit.ly/3h3wNQQ