Pelosi Has Advocated for Larger Stimulus Checks for Months

Misbar’s investigation found that Congress’s discussions of economic relief packages have been plagued by bipartisan politics. For example, Democrats have pushed for continued unemployment relief, while Republicans have argued against measures that would increase the national debt.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been blamed by some for spending many months blocking the CARES Act 2.0, which passed nearly 9 months after Congress passed the original CARES Act that sent out stimulus checks of $1200. McConnell also blocked the HEROES Act from coming to the Senate for a vote. The HEROES Act was a $3 trillion relief package that would send $2000 stimulus checks. He later blocked HEROES 2, a smaller relief package.

Every Democrat voted yes on the HEROES Act, while every Republican voted no. HEROES 2 would give citizens $1200 stimulus checks, with an additional $500 for each dependent. Pelosi supported both iterations of the HEROES Act. In her speech supporting HEROES 2, she said: “For a family of four earning $24,000, Heroes 2 would mean direct payments, a $3,400 direct payment; unemployment benefits, $600 per week enhanced UI  benefits; tax credits, up to $5,920 through the EITC and a fully refundable $4,000 [Child] Tax Credit, equaling additional $1,200 in refunds.” This, as well as her support of the original HEROES, indicates that Pelosi has wanted to give higher stimulus checks for months.

The chart below compares CARES Act 2.0 with the original CARES Act and the revised HEROES Act, showing that Pelosi’s originally-supported Act would give more money to citizens via stimulus check: double the amount than in the legislation recently passed by Congress.

Democrats accused McConnell of blocking the CARES Act 2.0 for months, since he demanded the removal of liability protections and funding for state and local governments from the bill. The bill that ultimately passed did not include these segments, although it did include many segments ranging from the useful to the bizarre: pandemic relief, museum funding, illegal streaming, climate policy, the Dalai Lama, and even meme-sharing. The bill, which clocks in at 5,593 pages, was described by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as “hostage-taking,” as lawmakers were given only a few hours to read through the text.

Some have questioned whether Trump’s dismissal of CARES 2.0 is a response to McConnell’s recognition of Biden as winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Trump had special assistant Molly A. Michael send out a PowerPoint presentation to Republican House members with a slide calling McConnell “the first one off the ship” after Mitch publicly congratulated Biden on the election results. 

Trump also attacked the GOP as a whole following the election.

Other people have expressed concern that Democrats, including Pelosi, are trying to include unnecessary legislation in order to approve higher stimulus check. Despite this, it cannot be said that Pelosi has not tried to support higher stimulus checks for months, long before Trump called the latest bill a disgrace. As such, we rate this claim as false.