McConnell and Mnuchin are playing an utterly cynical game on desperately needed COVID relief. The game is to offer competing proposals that are unacceptable to each other, as well as to Democrats.

When the Senate bipartisan "Gang of 8" came up with a $908 billion stopgap relief measure, McConnell said a red line for him was a blanket immunity shield for all corporations, no matter how recklessly they put their workers at risk. Think meatpackers, nursing homes, and Amazon warehouses.

Then yesterday, Mnuchin, on behalf of the White House, proposed a different bill—with a different poison pill. His bill, with a slightly larger price tag of $916 billion, slashes unemployment benefits. That in turn allowed McConnell, knowing that Democrats would balk, to say that he would no longer insist on the shield.

But as Chuck Schumer recognized, this is a shell game. He correctly accused both men of sabotaging the talks.

The Democrats face a strategic choice here: Take whatever they can get to help suffering people—or call the Republicans’ bluff.

Here’s the calculus: If 2020 ends with no deal, it will be several more weeks before relief flows.

But if the Democrats take a really bad deal, Republicans in the new Congress could argue that they’ve done a relief measure, that vaccines will soon bring the pandemic under control, and the economy will begin recovering by spring. Therefore, no more money.

Conversely, if there is no stopgap deal in the lame-duck session, Republicans will be on the defensive and Democrats could well get a bigger and better relief bill through the Congress.

Chuck Schumer, for one, seems pretty clear. Mnuchin and McConnell can take their cynical poison pills and stuff them.

The incoming Biden administration is trying to calculate the chances of getting a more adequate package in January or February if the current talks deadlock, given the pain that red-state people as well as blue-state citizens will be in, and Biden’s good personal relationships with several Republicans.

I’m with Schumer on this. The sheer cynicism of McConnell and Mnuchin knows no bounds. This could come back to haunt them and give Biden a stronger hand in January for a relief package that builds back better.