A coronavirus deal and a row over Russia kick off Trump’s ‘nutty and loopy’ last month

Lawmakers are among the first in the US to receive vaccinations – this as they pass a rescue bill that offers Americans disappointingly paltry relief, writes Griffin Connolly

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer (EPA)

At long last, Americans are getting more Covid relief.

If you file your own taxes and make less than $75,000 a year, you’ll be getting a $600 check from the Treasury Department.

If you were laid off recently amid the coronavirus pandemic, you’ll get $300 per week from the federal government in addition to state unemployment benefits.

And if you own or work at a small business, your company may be eligible for very favourable loans from the federal government, which effectively turn into grants as long as the loans are used to cover payroll expenses.

The deal struck Sunday is worth $900bn, the second-largest government bailout bill in US history, behind the $2.2trn CARES Act from March.

The Covid package will be bolted onto the annual government spending package that is itself worth an estimated $1.4trn.

The House and Senate will vote on the combined legislation on Monday after signing another last-minute stopgap spending bill on Sunday to avert a brief government shutdown.

Despite the historic nature of Sunday’s agreement, it feels oddly anti-climactic, especially if you’re a Democrat. The Trump administration had been offering $1.8trn in Covid relief before the election, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi had refused, holding the line at another $2.2trn follow-up to the CARES Act.

The deal doesn’t include either of the parties’ stated top priorities: injections of cash for state and local governments on the frontlines of the pandemic (Democrats’ top item) and liability protections for businesses, health care providers and school systems (Republicans’ top item).

While Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the deal provides a necessary cushion for many Americans, he admitted Republicans’ insistence on a narrower bill left a bad taste in Democrats’ mouths.

“Anyone who thinks this is enough does not know what’s going on in America and has not looked into the eyes of a small business owner, a restaurant owner losing their business,” Mr Schumer said on Sunday.

“We must do more under President Biden,” he vowed.

Meanwhile, as Mr Biden’s inauguration date draws nearer, the responsibility of governing the most prosperous nation on earth is becoming more and more tangible for the president-elect.

That includes dealing with Russia, the country credited with perpetrating a massive cyber attack on wide swaths of the US government and its agencies.

Mr Biden and his national security are mulling retaliatory actions as a means of deterrence for future attacks. From economic sanctions to a cyber attack on Russian infrastructure and other damaging measures, everything’s on the table.

But in a characteristically disconnected-from-reality tweet on Sunday, Mr Trump cast doubt on whether the Kremlin was actually responsible for the hack, forcing Senate Republicans to contradict him on the obvious truth that the hack was indeed Russia’s handiwork.

“It’s extraordinarily dangerous,” Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney said of the Russian cyber attack.

“It's an outrageous affront on our sovereignty and one that's going to have to be met with a very strong response – not just rhetorical, important as that is, but also with a cyber response of like magnitude or greater.”