Giving people money is (surprise!) really popular right now

86% of voters want Congress to approve an extra round of stimulus spending

When Republicans killed efforts for an extra $2 trillion in stimulus spending right before the election, I argued that it was perhaps their biggest missed opportunity of the campaign. Back then, an extra round of direct payments was wildly popular, and some Democrats were arguing for checks of up to $2,000. But the additional funding was killed by Mitch McConnell and some of his Republican colleagues, leaving the party without a popular achievement before Election Day. One wonders how the election may have been different had they done the popular thing. 

Now, two months after the effort for a second round of spending (the first being in April at the beginning of the pandemic) began, Washington has nearly converged on a bipartisan compromise for a $900 billion stimulus package. This time, political concerns look less likely to override electoral motivations.