USA Today: Latest stimulus bill came together at Lisa Murkowski’s house, over pasta dinner

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Sen Lisa Murkowski, with Sen. Susan Collins in the background, in this 2019 file photo.

Editor’s note: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in her 18th year in the U.S. Senate, is emerging as a powerful figure, whose Senate role in bridging the gap with the new president-elect Biden will be vital for Alaska’s survival in the rough years ahead. In this USA Today story, Alaskans get a glimpse of how she is at the center of the Senate power structure that hammered out a compromise on the $900 million relief package.

By USA TODAY

The deal aimed at helping Americans weather the fallout from COVID-19’s relentless winter was hatched at a small gathering fueled by pasta. 

In late November, Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski hosted a dinner at her home that included Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Mark Warner, D-Va.; Mitt Romney, R-Utah; and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. The senators began hammering out a broad legislative outline, including stimulus checks, extended unemployment benefits and a fresh lifeline for small businesses. 

The $900 billion deal broke an eight-month stalemate in which talks got going in fits and starts only to give way to more gridlock.

The pressure for legislation mounted as case counts surged, death tolls climbed, and Americans felt another round of economic pain as restaurants closed, airlines laid off employees and shops scaled back. 

Post-election negotiations over pasta  

The first signs of progress emerged after the Nov. 3 election.  

Manchin said he had called Collins to congratulate her on her reelection and kept talking to other senators who also felt they needed to act on stimulus, leading up to a dinner at Murkowski’s house on Nov. 17. 

The lawmakers ate takeout pasta as they discussed the package, Manchin said, and at the end of the meal, Warner, one of the richest members of the Senate, picked up the tab. 

Read this story at this USA Today link. 

72 COMMENTS

  1. Alaska will be done under a Biden Administration if it ever happens. The industry that provides over 85% 9f the revenue will be gone and Alaska will dry up.

    • Whoa dude … Lisa can smile? And caught on camera to verify this centennial event!
      Man, I would have lost that bar bet!

    • Lisa is one of the biggest rats in the Senate and must go. Prop 2 was passed by election fraud using the Dominion Voting Systems here in Alaska. We must immediately move to rid the State of these machines and rescind Prop 2. All Alaskans must melt her e-mail and phone systems now to stand up against the election fraud in our nation or be knowingly complicit in it and charged for treason against the Constitution and the American people.

  2. If Lisa was involved, it’s probably bad for the country. That is what I have learned from watching the political career of this self-serving career politician. I have no respect for her whatsoever.

  3. Wonder why the noodle lady didn’t bring some of her own pasta that they used to pedal in Anchorage? Figures she would only support a $600 deal instead of Trump’s $2,000 deal.

    • Greg: Ahhhhh, Trump himself was AWOL on this deal. Trump’s Treasury Secretary signed off on the $600 per person deal. I reckon you will turn your check for $600 back or donate to some charity, right?

  4. Thus far the only factual issue is Lisa Mukowski is traitor her signature was for the stimulus bill that she never read and billions were destined for overseas and not Americans!!! And Dan Sullivan is no better Alaska has been betrayed by these three !

    • You are correct! Sullivan, Murkowski and Young voted for the monstrosity and need to answer for it. I’m also concerned about the Dingell Act which is a Native Alaskan buy out for votes. Why after receiving millions of acres and a billion dollars under the ANSC agreement are Native Alaskans being allowed to renegotiate and select new swaths of public property to make private? Thompson’s Pass is a fantastic recreational place for the people of Valdez and now may be swept up in a property grab and made private which would close it to the public unless there is some lease agreement meaning money paid to Native Corporations? What a bunch of you know what!

  5. Comes as little Surprise that Senator Murkowski had her hand in crafting this bill. She and the likes of her, are the hand basket…….

  6. Marie Antoinette – “let them eat cake”. Lisa Murkowski – “let them have 600 bucks”. Way past time to bring out the pitchforks against our political aristocracy.

    • Fishing for food: So you think the deal is too small? Not worth it? Get a grip. Or maybe counseling Or ask to have your meds changed.

      • Geldhof – the “deal”? Put the pipe down, fool! People are losing their businesses, being evicted & committing suicide and you are running off at the mouth about Murkowski’s and her ilk’s “deals”? You are as out of touch with reality as your gal pal!

    • RJ: Is there some reason you are inclined towards blind hatred of an elected official working for the benefit of individual Alaskans? Are you so hacked off that you are not going to get a bigger check that you bashed Senator Lisa? Or do you think Congress should not have enacted a relief bill?

      Check your meds and ask about counseling. Get a grip on reality instead of spewing hatred and nonsense.

  7. If we can’t replace Lisa with a Republican than she needs to be replaced by a Democrat. A Democrat is about as low as you can go but at least they don’t lie about being one. Lisa constantly lies about being a Republican. I can respect a snake that isn’t pretending to be a harmless lizard. But I can’t respect a snake that pretends not to be one. Especially when that snake in lizards clothing keeps biting you time after time…

  8. So a bunch of consummate liberals got together for pasta and came up with a plan to hose the American public out of a ton of tax money.

    That’s “news?”

  9. Well, that explains a lot. A terrible, pork riddled, corrupt, fake stimulus bill that is designed to make politicians wealthier while Americans suffer could only be designed by these commies.

  10. Truly despicable!!
    Almost 600 pages and TWO TRILLION dollars. Makes me wonder what they in Congress know that we don’t. Obviously our currency cannot survive and that holds the country together as well.
    The stimulus for the American people was just a couple of written lines. Please educate yourself on the shameful proposed spending of this bill and hope that Trump vetoes.

    Please make a effort to pass your thoughts on this bill to our Senators.

  11. Tulsi Gabbard, along with Trump showed their true colors on this one. The fact the left binned Tulsi, a strong honorable peace-loving woman of color, and binned her for a Jefferson Davies wannabe, well, that speaks volumes about them. Start counting the days before the tail starts wagging the old war dog.

  12. I bet Lisa’s house husband, who’s never had a job, did the cooking. Lots of sauce, but no meat. John Sturgeon for Senate 2022.

      • Lisa’s house-husband actually sold crafts at flea markets? Candles? Old Murkowski campaign paraphanalia? The guy is always smiling. Never had to work a day in his life, and either did Lisa. Appointed to power by her daddy, Frank. 40 years of Murkowskis in Alaska politics is FAR too long. We really have to get rid of them. John Sturgeon…………get started so we can raise you some money to take-out Lisa. Alaskans really dislike this woman.

  13. With respect, Madam Editor, we’re unpersuaded about Senator Murkowski’s political values, the Senator’s ability to do more than Job #1: Get Money.
    .
    From “The Federalist” we find Murkowski’s Pasta Deal includes:

    (1) $300M to the Social Security Administration, none of which will go directly to seniors;
    (2) $50M to the Institute for Museum and Library Services in addition to its $250M budget;
    (3) $5M to the Railroad Retirement Board in addition to its $25.4 billion trust fund;
    (4) $75M to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting;
    (5) $350M for ‘Refugee Assistance’: While one in five Americans lost their jobs or saw their hours reduced, Congress put $350M into the stimulus bill for refugee assistance and resettlement;
    (6) $25 million for the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center;
    (7) $1 billion for Amtrak which has lost money every year since 1970; in 2017 alone, it lost $194M;
    (8) $75 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities, plus $75 million for the National Endowment for the Arts.
    (thefederalist.com/2020/03/31/10-insanely-wasteful-spending-items-in-the-coronabailout/).
    .
    From “Politico”, we find:
    .
    (9) A provision for the FDA to approve “innovative” sunscreens to benefit L’Oreal, operating in Kentucky, appeared in the bill, steered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell;
    .
    (10) $25B in loans and loan guarantees reserved for airlines;
    .
    (11) $150B for state and local governments, with no state getting less than $1.5 billion;
    .
    (12) A new tax benefit for student loan borrowers whose employers help them pay off their debt;
    .
    (13) $350 billion in Small Business Administration loans for casinos if they’re a small business and need less than $10M. Larger casinos can apply for $454 billion in Treasury-backed loans.
    (politico.com/news/2020/03/26/stimulus-coronavirus-special-deals-151108)
    .
    From “Reason”, we find:
    .
    (14) $85.5M for assistance to Cambodia;
    .
    (15) $134M to Burma;
    .
    (16) $1.3B for Egypt and the Egyptian military, “…which will go out and buy almost exclusively Russian military equipment,” said President Trump;
    .
    (17) $40M for the Kennedy Center which is not open for business;
    .
    (18) $1B for the Smithsonian, and an additional $154M for the National Gallery of Art.
    (reason.com/2020/12/22/trump-threatens-to-sink-covid-19-relief-bill-unless-congress-cuts-wasteful-spending-spends-more-on-2000-stimulus-checks/)
    .
    (19)… while productive American citizens forced out of work get $600.
    .
    So, Madam Editor, at the risk of being thought rude, we’ll pass on the Pasta Deal.
    .
    And on Senator Murkowski.

  14. What a waste of a senator. In fact I fired off an email to both is our senators for failing our country by voting for this porkulous package that does very little for Covid relief. I really hope President Trump waits the required 10 days and vetoes it, forcing the new congress to act. What is best for America, not foreign countries.

  15. Sending billions overseas instead of helping citizens in the USA. Normal behavior for a house full of democrats including democrat Lies a…………..

  16. So wonderfully wholesome; pasta dinner with friends. I am sure they were all wearing masks and social distancing (sarcasm) while they dined and presided over the wholesale theft of the American people, their children and grandchildren. A 5600 page bill that none of them actually read, filled with theft and waste. Hopefully the Murkowski family leaves the State of Alaska for good once she is voted out in 2022.

    • Not gonna happen. She is now considered an endangered species under the RINO Protection Act (Prop 2) so it is now illegal to vote her out

  17. She’s why we’re sending 100’s of billions overseas? Pakistani gender studies and ‘democracy’ in Venezuela? We cannot even manage a legitimate election and we’re gonna send millions to Venezuela?

    USA? You can keep her if Alaska can secede.

  18. First, Appropriation bills are suppose to originate out of the House of Representatives Not the Senate, but hell, who really pays mind to our constitution anymore anyways.
    Second, these people are promoting more government interlacing into private businesses, instead of just opening up our country.
    You have your stupid high dollar worthless vaccine, the cdc got their funding and way more that they were pouting about, the health care system got their bailout, the socialist have stole the election with the help of mail in ballots, machines, and a enough people who actually are for the lying promises of socialism. All over the intentional hype of some virus that wasn’t any worse than the previous H1N1, Swine, and Corona viruses in the past, that never warranted a shutdown, money grab, and takeover like this. “Played”

  19. What!? No homecooked meal offered to the guest. Whatever happen to the Wealthy class separating themselves from the commoners by their excellent impeccable hospitality and host skills with creating a beautiful table setting with a home cooked meal set for “princes'” and “princesses'”
    If one is going to be part of the Ruling class than at least learn table manners and hospitality. there is nothing hospitable about a Host and Hostess offering their guests take-out.

  20. Gee no mask no social distancing in house dining. Is this what the media business elected official tell us to stop CORVID-19 spread?
    A FIne example by Lisa and elected officials.

  21. One of the rare times I disagree with Trump.
    Even a flat $600 is stupid let alone $2000. Millions of government and private sector employees have not missed a single paycheck and should not receive it. The $300 unemployment comp boost I would agree with. We are facing an enemy (COV19) not unlike being in WW2. But handing out phony money is exactly the wrong thing to do. And of course, we should not dictate whether business are open or closed. They should be allowed to adapt and innovate under the various health restrictions.

    • Since 75% of transmission is from family and close friends -by corollary we should ban all family gatherings! Such idiocy.is unfortunately much like the movie “Idiocracy” which we resemble more each day.

    • I agree that businesses should be able to innovate and adapt. It is easy for any group – even a factioned group to come together when the enemy is an outside force such as in WWII for this conversation.

      What I see that took place here was that President Trump was too successful too fast – and the sad fact is that there are corporations that own the media who spoonfed a storyline to the American people.

      Coupled with that is the various levels of governance – state, county, local – that in some instances, misused their public trust and banked on their positional authority to snuff out the economy.

      I am very empathetic to the many lives that were lost and to the families grieving those losses. I am also empathetic to the American families out of work and the fear of losing their roof over their heads, and those that actually have.

      So to me, President Trump continues to be a leader for the individual Americans.

      I continue to trust him because I as an American do not feel like a pawn in someone else’s chess game.

      That is what makes me feel safe and secure in his leadership.

  22. “Lying Trash-Can” Lisa Murkowski. Well, the dominion voting machines got you where you are today but that will end………They are out in the open in the State’s voting recent history. You are trash that the State of Alaska needs to dump. Frank Murkowski wants back in since Biden, his good friend is in the picture, so be it for the Murkowski’s and the trash that follows. To the dumpster with you…

  23. Just got vetoed. Another thing TRUMP WON by a LANDSLIDE. Not worried about anything everything is going to get all sorted out. Actually I owe 3 pizzas to people because I told of Trump wind by a landslide I’ll get you a pizza (to 3). President Trump will enjoy seeing you take the oath again on 1/20/21. God bless America. ??

  24. Wealth redistribution….the big problem here is that the redistributed wealth does not go to the US’s poor. The wealth goes to other countries with Democrats and our wonderful Sen Murkowski taking a skim. Its good to be part of the political elite.

  25. So Lisa Murkowski negotiqated a $600.00 check for Americans and billions for foreigners?

    This is as close to treason as you can get.

    • “Treason doth never prosper. What’s the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
      So politicians are stealing from your grandkids. So what? That’s how it works here.

  26. How disgusting that she represents Alaska.

    5600 pages and the hand out to we the people were just a couple lines in this bill.

    Please send Lisa your thoughts

  27. My goodness, the vituperation aimed at Lisa seems, shall we say, excessive. How does this diminish what we want as a nation for our government going forward? Seems to me she is trying to move forward to a workable solution. Has the idea of compromise to affect a common goal gone by the wayside as some of us seem to be determined to destroy ourselves from the inside out?

    • It’s FULL of wasteful pork Greg, even for other countries. The $600 goes to each person, even those who stayed working & never missed a pay day. Even the rich.

      Don’t you feel, as a liberal, that the money should go to the unemployed & parents forced to stay home w/ their children? as opposed to people w/ big bank accounts that don’t need it.

      Is this how liberals think we help the poor & close the income gap?

  28. This article is such crap. The bill was dead in the water because of the election, in spite of the suffering of American people.

    This is the ultimate example of the “political class” in America. Regardless of either sides “platform” they collectively put their interests before individual Americans.

    And then when there is movement – everyone comes out of the woodwork to claim to be the movers and shakers.

    Outside of the political storyline, how does someone foot the bill for takeout food AFTER the meal (and “deliberations”) was done?

    Is “take out” the new word for a catered 5-course meal with dinner service provided?

    Just curious..

  29. Pork smorgasbord served al-la liberal rino at Lisa’s? I read that the average political ‘mastermind’ that delayed the $600 to citizens for 9 months, received a $130,000 federal paycheck during that amount of time, for themselves, to ‘run’ their share of the government. That is not counting benefits that no average American will ever see.
    Now, why would that meeting be held outside the halls of congress? Inquiring minds would like to know. (I think we already do)

  30. Lisa and Dan have not missed a paycheck and tout on their websites how good this will be for Alaskans. They voted to give themselves a huge raise and toss struggling Alaskans 600 bucks. I expect this from lisa (and young) but I gave money for Dan’s re-election when I did not have the money because I believed in him. My family and I will remember. I will support anyone with a heartbeat that runs against murkowski

  31. All I know is that she should eat more pasta and pork. I hugged it out with her for a photo opp a few years ago before sharing a plane with her, and I could feel her back ribs. She is rail thin. Unhealthy thin. I freaked, like I was hugging a skeleton.

  32. I presume that the lawsuit against the State challenging Ballot Measure 2 is still stuck in a folder somewhere within the Anchorage Superior Court, thus there might still be a glimmer of hope that Princess Lisa can be primaried out in in 2022 and many thanks are due to Suzanne for her fine reporting on the matter: https://mustreadalaska.com/lawsuit-filed-over-ballot-measure-2-ranked-choice-voting-jungle-primary

    Irrespective of the outcome of the lawsuit though, there’s never been a better time to draft a potential successor and we need a fighter to fill the role. Mike Shower, Shelly Hughes, Ben Carpenter, Sarah Vance, Ron Gillham, and Ken Jacobus might be included on the list or perhaps conservatives could abandon the GOP and back Bob Bird or another AKIP candidate if need be.

    On a somewhat related note, Senator Sullivan and Congressman Young have been remarkably silent regarding joining those lawmakers who’ll be challenging the Electoral College on January 6th. Given the significant adverse impact to Alaska posed by the prospect of a Biden/Harris Presidency, we’d be remiss if we didn’t hold both gents’ feet to the fire to step up to the plate for what’s right.

    • Both Sullivan and Young must also be replaced trouble is finding real Christian conservatives that believe in the letter of the law of the land and actually adhere to their Oath of Office!!!

  33. So if they did nothing, what would you all say then? I am against spending this kind of money. There are jobs to be had if people had incentive to go find one. I am apparently not a critical deep thinking as may of you however, I give Lisa credit for bringing people together and doing “something.” I have no other motive that to give her kudos for trying. If she did nothing, you all would blast her for that. Give it a break. We’ll be paying off this nonsense for many years. I didn’t get a stimulus check the first time around and I’m not getting one this time. Thank God I don’t qualify.

  34. Lisa and all her RINO friends started this monstrosity? It makes sense now that it doesn’t do squat for Americans but throws hundreds of millions of our money to overseas entities that will filter it back to the corrupt politicians. Lisa, you are a joke and embarrassment to Alaska. You are a danger to the American people and the Constitution! Palin 2022!

  35. We need term limits, the first one in office, the second in jail.
    They need to be on our retirement system, social security.
    Our retiree medical, Medicare.
    Instead of limos let them use public transit that they love so much.
    2 aides, one in Alaska one in DC.
    They are running our country in the ground with debt while they line their own pockets with cash from lobbyists and foreign countries..
    Pasta! Pasta! Who cares what the thieves ate!

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