$ 1,200 checks, less unemployment aid

By Sarah Westwood, Nicky Robertson, Ali Main and Caroline Kelly | CNN

White House officials and Senate Republicans are finalizing a bill that would offer $ 1,200 checks to many Americans and that would not renew the total unemployment insurance upgrade as part of a proposal for the upcoming stimulus bill. to be released Monday, senior management officials said Sunday. .

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNN’s Jake Tapper about “State of the Union” that $ 1,200 checks to Americans will be part of the new recovery package, in addition to reemployment bonuses, withholding and tax credits for small businesses and restaurants.

Kudlow said the Republican proposal will lengthen the expiring moratorium on federal eviction. The weekly $ 600 boost to unemployment benefits that many Americans have relied on is also expiring.

The new provisions are slated to be unveiled Monday, hoping to replace benefits that officials characterized as potential incentives for beneficiaries not to return to work. “We want to move forward quickly, the bill will be tabled on Monday, we are prepared to act quickly,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Kudlow told Tapper that “we have had an avalanche of inquiries and phone calls and complaints that small shops, businesses and restaurants cannot hire people.”

“They went too far,” he continued. “Maybe last March, it was necessary for that, but really the consequences of people not going back to work … we want to pay people to go back to work.”

The upgrade was designed to keep laid-off people at home instead of looking for work during pandemic-fueled blockades, and has helped millions pay rent, buy groceries, and cover other bills. But it has also kept some workers on the sidelines, creating headaches for employers trying to get back to work, even as new waves of coronaviruses complicate the reopening of the state.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have split over whether to extend the federal push, and Democrats say it should be extended until next year because the economy is still weak and the unemployed say they have trouble finding jobs, as well as childcare.

However, Republicans are concerned that such generous payments may discourage people from returning to their jobs, delaying the economic recovery.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said on ABC’s “This Week” that “the original benefits will not be” on the new bill, adding that “the original unemployment benefits actually paid people to stay at home”.

Meadows said the proposal will involve offering improved unemployment benefits that would replace the wages of a laid-off worker by up to 70%, although he acknowledged the challenges some states will face in administering such a complicated benefit. She said she has worked with Mnuchin and Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia to ensure that “outdated computers” in some state benefits offices do not prevent people from receiving their benefits.

Related: these 12 charts show economic recovery is on hiatus

The chief of staff also confirmed that he and Mnuchin will return to Capitol Hill on Sunday to continue reviewing the details of the bill.

Administration officials rejected the payroll tax cut that President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded after failing to get the support of enough Senate Republicans and after acknowledging that it was not a start for Democrats.

“I would have preferred a payroll tax cut in addition to that check, but be that as it may, politically it doesn’t work, but the check is there,” Kudlow said in “State of the Union.”