Coronavirus relief deal elusive as Pelosi says Democrats await agreement from the administration
The headline above ran in the Sunday, October 4, edition of the Washington Post. For more than a month, Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin (representing the Trump administration) and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi have spent weeks trying to put together another round Coronavirus-related financial assistance for individual Americans and businesses. While both Mnuchin and Pelosi agree that relief is needed, neither can come to an agreement as to what a new relief package would look like. While some simply attribute such an impasse to the “swamp” politics that fester in our nation’s capital, others are looking for ways to make our government more productive—and more responsive to the needs of the American people.
Question: Some have argued that, given the polarization of the two major parties (republicans and Democrats), Americans should organize a new party based on moderate politics. Why might such an effort fail—or succeed?
