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“I think both sides are saying they want one, but both sides are saying they want the one they want,” Senator Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican and a member of the leadership on Capitol Hill, said Monday.
The election has left unclear the chances of passing another stimulus package, senators and Congressional sources told CNN on Monday with leading Republicans against moving a massive package of more than $ 1 trillion. Democrats demand double.
Meanwhile, Trump, who once asked Republicans to accept “a great and beautiful stimulus” in hopes that it would boost his electoral prospects, is now consumed by the consequences of his defeat. The White House’s top stimulus negotiator, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, has taken a step back from the talks, and all eyes are on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had been on the sidelines of the negotiations. during the summer and fall.
“We need another rescue package,” McConnell said last week in Kentucky. “I think we have to do it and I think we have to do it before the end of the year.”
Advisers on both sides who have spent months watching the negotiations argue that there is no sign that a deal is on the horizon, even if the balance of the Senate is at stake. Both sides are still awaiting instructions from their leaders on how to proceed, and the failed talks have repeatedly left members unsure that a deal can be reached when another spending deadline looms in December to maintain government funding. If anything, they argue that there are too many variables at this point to assess whether a lame duck settlement is possible. On the one hand, with Mnuchin out of the picture, there are still questions about how far McConnell will take the helm and negotiate directly with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or whether Trump will be willing to sign any deals.
Attendees say there is some hope that President-elect Joe Biden will also prevail in the negotiations as a way to begin building a coalition with the Republican-controlled Senate. However, it is unclear if such an alliance could be forged even before he is president, and with two notable Senate elections in Georgia.
The calculation for Republicans is whether a stimulus agreement is necessary to power up Republican Georgia Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. While several Republican senators were re-elected from Maine to Montana without a bipartisan agreement, the runoff is different and Republican senators will not allow Trump to help generate turnout at the top of the list. McConnell will have to try to give his Republican rulers every advantage he can. But McConnell still faces a conference opposing a stimulus bill that costs well over $ 1 trillion. Anything over $ 1.5 trillion has been a red line for most of your conference members.
“You know Mitch said he wanted one done. And I agree that we have to do it at a level where you know what we support previously in the Senate, which is very different from what the House has been trying to do. … It has to be focused on getting people back to work to get children to school safely and leave the virus behind, “Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, told reporters.
There are also a few weeks left until Congress must find a way to keep the government funded. That deadline, December 11, will likely take a lot of the appropriators’ time. And while there are some who believe lawmakers could combine a stimulus with a spending bill, many aides note that there are still many differences between state and local funding, the size of the stimulus, and the amount of unemployment insurance owed. boost. the federal level.
“It might not be a bad idea if we can agree to the stimulus,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Dick Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, told reporters.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, told reporters that there was a “compelling case” for a new COVID bill, but not one that was the size Democrats were seeking.
“I don’t know what the magic number is. But it’s not zero and it’s not $ 3 trillion,” Cornyn said.
CNN’s Ali Zaslav and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
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