'They only care about votes': As millions slip into poverty, voting may be the only leverage for a 2nd stimulus check

Shannon O’Brien’s daughter turns 15 years old on Wednesday, an early milestone for any teenage girl. But this birthday will be unlike any other the young girl has experienced before.

For O’Brien, 48, this year has been clouded by uncertainty since he lost his job as a bartender in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now O’Brien, who is from upstate New York, doesn’t know if he will be able to get his daughter a birthday present this year because he receives so little from unemployment and he’s drowning in unpaid household bills.

“I’ve had to sell family heirlooms,” he told Yahoo News in a video interview. “I’ve had to bum money from friends just to get by, and it’s humiliating.”

O’Brien, like millions of Americans across the country, is now dependent on the government to help make ends meet with a second stimulus bill. Earlier this month President Trump called on Congress to pass additional coronavirus relief measures, hours after initially announcing that he was calling off negotiations until after the November election.

“The House & Senate should IMMEDIATELY Approve 25 Billion Dollars for Airline Payroll Support, & 135 Billion Dollars for Paycheck Protection Program for Small Business,” Trump tweeted on Oct. 6. “Both of these will be fully paid for with unused funds from the Cares Act. Have this money. I will sign now!”

On Tuesday, Trump doubled down, making another appeal for Republican lawmakers to support an economic relief package higher than the $2.2 trillion proposed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "It’s very simple. I want to do it even bigger than the Democrats,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.”

But top Democrats, led by Pelosi, have largely rejected efforts to pass piecemeal legislation. On Sunday, Pelosi said she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin needed to reach an agreement within 48 hours if they want to pass a coronavirus stimulus relief bill before Election Day.

“The 48 only relates to if we want to get it done before the election, which we do,” Pelosi said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

But that 48-hour deadline came and passed Tuesday with no deal.

Pelosi is putting pressure on the Trump administration to cut a deal soon because the legislative process in the House and Senate will take time ahead of the election. Democrats and Republicans generally agree the country needs a stimulus bill for the economy, but the two sides differ on the scope and size of the bill.

Democratic House leadership insists that any legislation needs to contain $500 billion in aid for states. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dismissed the idea of allowing states to use federal funds to help them make up for budget shortfalls.

On Saturday, McConnell announced there would be voting on stimulus measures, including a stand-alone Paycheck Protection Program bill to help small businesses, on Tuesday and Wednesday. But Democrats are expected to block his effort.

In a call with reporters on Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer assailed McConnell’s plan.

“That is just a sham,” Schumer said on the call. “It’s a stunt by Sen. McConnell when he’s blocked everything that’s happened so far. And in terms of getting an agreement, he’s even said he wouldn’t go along with what Donald Trump wanted.”

As Congress goes back and forth about whether a second stimulus will pass, the most vulnerable Americans are hurting.

As a bartender, O’Brien made most of his money from tips. The unemployment checks he now gets are only about 15 to 20 percent of the money he used to bring in. And he wants to get back to work but can’t take just any job because he also cares for his 78-year-old mother, who has health issues.

“I’m back down to $106 a week, which is gone away before it even gets here,” said O’Brien. “In fact, the next four weeks of it are already gone. … I didn’t just quit my job because I’m lazy. My industry evaporated.”

While O’Brien is still undecided on who will get his vote for president, he says his vote for Congress is fully dependent on who is able to get a stimulus bill signed first.

“My vote for Congress will be 100 percent dependent on whether or not a stimulus deal is at least achieved, if not signed, by the day of the election,” he said. “I live in a swing district … that went for Trump by 7 points four years ago. ... I can’t reward Nancy Pelosi if she won’t bring this across the finish line.”

O’Brien added that he feels voting is the only leverage Americans have in the fight against elected leaders.

“That’s all these people understand,” he said. “They only care about votes. They don’t care about voters. And once the election is done, we’ve got two years before they actually pay attention to us again. So our leverage as voters is now. They talk about their leverage over Republicans, or Republicans have leverage over Democrats. Our leverage is not in blind, partisan loyalty or ideological loyalty. That isn’t going to cut it for the American people. They need to be worried about their jobs.”

As more time passes, Americans don’t care how it gets done, they just want something done. Two-thirds of voters say Congress should focus on passing more COVID-19 relief for struggling workers and businesses before considering Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, according to a recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll.

The survey, which was conducted from Oct. 9 to 11, found that large majorities of the public think Congress has its priorities backward. Not only do more than three-quarters (77 percent) of registered voters want legislators to approve another major pandemic relief package; 66 percent want the Senate to vote on it before voting on Barrett’s nomination. A full third of Republicans (33 percent) agree.

But to date, there’s still no second stimulus bill. Meanwhile, millions of Americans nationwide are falling below the poverty line without government aid. The number of Americans living in poverty grew by 8 million since May, according to a Columbia University study. The study found there was an increase in poverty rates after early coronavirus relief ended without more to follow.