About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 31, 2020)
LOCA^OP HEADLINES The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Thursday, December 31,2020 3A Senate pushes back on $2K checks McConnell, GOP-led body dismiss vote by Dems, Trump for additional relief SUSAN WALSH I Associated Press Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., walks back to his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 30. BY LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon nell all but shut the door Wednes day on President Donald Trump’s push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks, declaring Congress has provided enough pandemic aid as he blocked another attempt by Democrats to force a vote. The GOP leader made clear he is unwilling to budge, despite political pressure from Trump and even some fellow Republi can senators demanding action. Trump wants the recent $600 in aid increased threefold. But McCo nnell dismissed the idea of bigger “survival checks” approved by the House, saying the money would go to plenty of American households that just don’t need it. McConnell’s refusal to act means the additional relief Trump wanted is all but dead. “We just approved almost a tril lion dollars in aid a few days ago,” McConnell said, referring to the year-end package Trump signed into law. McConnell added, “if specific, struggling households still need more help,” the Senate will consider “smart targeted aid. Not another firehose of borrowed money.” The showdown between the outgoing president and his own Republican Party over the $2,000 checks has thrown Congress into a chaotic year-end session just days before new lawmakers are set to be sworn into office. It’s one last standoff, together with the override of Trump’s veto of a sweeping defense bill, that will punctuate the president’s final days and deepen the GOP’s divide between its new wing of Trump- styled populists and what had been mainstay conservative views against government spending. Trump has been berating the GOP leaders, and tweeted, “$2000 ASAP!” For a second day in a row, Sen ate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer tried to force a vote on the bill approved by the House meeting Trump’s demand for the $2,000 checks. “What we’re seeing right now is Leader McConnell trying to kill the checks — the $2,000 checks desperately needed by so many American families,” Schumer said at the Capitol. The roadblock set by Senate Republicans appears insurmount able. Most GOP senators seemed to accept the inaction even as a grow ing number of Republicans, includ ing two senators in runoff elections on Jan. 5 in Georgia, agree with Trump’s demand, some wary of bucking him. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the $600 checks would begin to go out Wednesday. Congress had settled on smaller payments in a compromise over the big, year-end COVID relief and government funding bill that Trump reluctantly signed into law. Before signing, though, Trump demanded more. With the Georgia Senate run off elections days away, lead ing Republicans warned that the GOP’s refusal to provide more aid as the virus worsens could jeopar dize the outcome of those races. Georgia’s GOP Sens. David Per due and Kelly Loeffler are trying to fend off Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in runoff elections that will determine which party has the Senate majority. The two Republicans announced sup port for Trump’s call for more gen erous checks. “The Senate Republicans risk throwing away two seats and con trol of the Senate,” Newt Gingrich, the former congressional leader, said on Fox News. McConnell has tried to shield his divided Republicans from a dif ficult vote. On Wednesday he sug gested he had kept his word to start a “process” to address Trump’s demands, even if it means no votes will actually be taken. “It’s no secret Republicans have a diversity of views,” he said. Earlier, McConnell had unveiled a new bill loaded up with Trump’s other priorities as a possible off ramp for the stalemate. It included the $2,000 checks more narrowly targeted to lower-income house holds as well as a complicated repeal of protections for tech com panies like Facebook or Twitter under Section 230 of a communica tions law that the president com plained is unfair to conservatives. It also tacked on the establishment of a bipartisan commission to review the 2020 presidential election Trump lost to President-elect Joe Biden. If McConnell sets a vote on his bill, it could revive Trump’s pri orities. But because the approach contains the additional tech and elections provisions, Democrats and some Republicans will likely balk and it’s unlikely to have enough support in Congress to pass. No additional votes on COVID aid have been scheduled at this point. For McConnell, the proce dural moves allowed him to check the box over the commitments he made when Trump was defiantly refusing to sign off on the big year- end package last weekend. “To ensure the President was comfortable signing the bill into law, the Senate committed to beginning one process that would combine three of the President’s priorities,” McConnell said. “That was a com mitment, and that’s what happened. ” Liberal senators, led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who support the relief boost are blocking action on a defense bill until a vote can be taken on Trump’s demand for $2,000 for most Americans. Sanders thundered on the floor that McConnell should call his own constituents in the GOP leader’s home state of Kentucky “and find out how they feel about the need for immediate help in terms of a $2,000 check.” Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marco Rubio of Florida, among the party’s poten tial 2024 presidential hopefuls, also pushed in the president’s direction. Hawley is also leading Trump’s challenge Jan. 6 to the Electoral College result tally in Congress. Other Republicans panned the big ger checks, arguing during a lively Senate debate that the nearly $400 billion price tag was too high, the relief is not targeted to those in need and Washington has already dis patched ample sums on COVID aid. DERSCH ■ Continued from 1A related illnesses. “The COVID on top of that has just added to our volume,” she said. Overall, COVID-19 “has changed the whole dynamic of nursing,” said Dersch, who has been in nursing 12 years and at the Braselton hospital since 2017. “You’re used to getting sick patients, but you’re not used to all of your patients being really sick. “And it takes a toll on you.” Dersch, 46, said she and her fellow health care workers are worn out by the end of the day. “Everybody goes home tired. Everybody is earning their paycheck 100 %, if not 150%, every day,” she said. And job satisfaction can be challenging. “I think there’s a lot of feeling of failure on our part because we want to make every body better,” Dersch said. To cope with pressures at work, “you have to really develop that shell around you that protects you from a lot of that, that you learn not to take it home and not take it person ally,” Dersch said. Despite those pressures, even on more intense days, the career taps into a lifelong passion to serve others. “You find that job you just love, and nurs ing is it for me,” said Dersch, a Pennsylvania native who grew up in Georgia and now lives in Jefferson. “I enjoy the thrill of getting someone in (the emergency room) and ... trying to figure out what’s wrong with them, while at the same time taking care of them.” She added: “I really enjoy helping people, making people feel better when they feel down, when they’re scared.” One thing Dersch hadn’t seen before in her career was the empty emergency rooms at the beginning of the pandemic but before the crunch of COVID-19 patients. “Some people are more scared of the virus than what could actually be going on with them,” she said. “We saw a decline in the number of people (being seen for) heart attacks, of (people with) strokes not com ing into the hospital. They were still having them. They just weren’t seeking treatment.” Dersch said she hasn’t had the virus or experienced symptoms. And neither have her husband and her mother, all living in the same house. She has one biological son and four step children — all who take great precautions in visiting with Dersch. “You social distance, you wash your hands, you make sure you take all the pre cautions, but I can’t safely tell (family) I don’t have (COVID-19) because I’m exposed pretty much on a daily basis,” she said. Even at home, she and her husband live in the basement while her mom stays upstairs. “We do interact, but we keep our distance within our house,” Dersch said. A hot tub she and her husband bought for the house about a year ago has become her happy place in an especially difficult year. “That was perfect timing. That’s how we relax,” Dersch said. “We made our back yard an oasis, a getaway place. Now with the colder weather, we still go in the backyard, but we just use the hot tub as our escape now.” And it helps to imagine a time when COVID-19 isn’t the threat it is now. “As much as I need to wear a mask, I would love not to wear one,” Dersch said. “I would love not to cover my face.” Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton Nurse Educator Sally Dersch has taken on caring for COVID-19 patients in addition to her job due to rising numbers of cases. Photos by SCOTT ROGERS The Times GEORGIA RENEW EARLY ALL COUNTIEST 4 }A * MOTOR VEHICLE SERVICES UNAVAILABLE JANUARY 12-18 FOR STATE SYSTEM UPGRADE No vehicle registration or titling services available in office No online services or kiosks available You can renew up to 60 days before your birthday Darla Eden, CPA HALL COUNTY Tax Commissioner SIftVICC I imCItNCV | ACCOUNTABILITY ► Learn more at www.hallcountytax.org
