There was almost no chance that Senate Republicans were going to agree to a significant stimulus spending package before the election after they sat on their collective asses for most of the year, but now it's official.
There won't and can't be a stimulus package because Senate Republicans adjourned until after the election after rushing their vote to confirm Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court last night.
With the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffering its biggest single-day drop since early September and the coronavirus pandemic picking up steam, Washington threw in the towel Monday on efforts to help the economy. [...]
The Senate is slated to return to session Nov. 9, the week after the election, while House members are not due back until Nov. 16. When they return, they face a deadline of Dec. 11 to reach agreement on another stopgap funding bill to keep the government open.
Based on media coverage in general, there seems to be some perception that Republicans will agree to a stimulus deal after the election, but I personally have no idea why anyone would think that.
I can only see that happening if Trump is reelected, but even in that case the circumstances won't be remarkably differently than they have been since last April when the last stimulus package cleared both chambers of Congress. And if Trump loses, he personally won't sign off on a stimulus package.
The stock market fell off a cliff, in part, because speculators and analysts priced in stimulus spending that was never going to happen. And if they do that again under the assumption that Republicans will agree to a deal next month, it would only demonstrate that people with money continue to underestimate just how fundamentally broken the GOP is.
Money managers keep expecting governance from a party that no longer governs.
For her part, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is undoubtedly aware and has been for some time that Senate Republicans won't agree to a deal, but her public optimism highlights how intransigent the GOP is.