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WASHINGTON: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his fellow Republicans on Tuesday (Oct. 20) that he had warned the White House not to divide Republicans by sealing a pre-election COVID-19 relief deal. unbalanced with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, even when she said publicly she would put any such deal to the vote.
McConnell made his comments during a private lunch with fellow Republicans on Tuesday, said three people familiar with his comments, who requested anonymity because the session was private.
The Kentucky Republican seems concerned that a deal between Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would drive a wedge between Republicans, forcing them to choose whether to support a Pelosi-blessed deal with Trump that would violate conservative positions they have held for months. Many Republicans say they can’t vote for another great deal brokered by Pelosi.
McConnell’s move further dampens any chance of a deal and comes as Pelosi and Mnuchin have reached a critical phase in their talks on whether to pass any relief before Election Day.
The contours of a potential deal are taking shape behind the scenes even as President Donald Trump’s Republican allies are backing down from the administration’s tolerance for a $ 2 trillion package.
McConnell said that if such a bill passed through the Democratic-controlled House with Trump’s blessing, “we would put it in the Senate room.” Those public comments came after the private session with other Republicans.
Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke again Tuesday amid signs that they continue to narrow their differences.
Pelosi said Tuesday that they remain at odds over refundable tax credits for working poor and families with children, the size of an aid package sought by Democrats for state and local governments, and an liability shield for businesses and other organizations against lawsuits for their COVID Preparations.
The Pelosi-Mnuchin talks also involve pandemic unemployment aid, a second round of direct payments of $ 1,200, and money for schools, tests and vaccinations.
Pelosi had said Tuesday was a deadline day, but clarified in an interview with Bloomberg News that the goal is to stimulate the two sides to exchange their best proposals on a number of unresolved issues, not to close all their disagreements or have a final legislature. language at hand.
“Let’s see where we are,” Pelosi said Tuesday. “We all want to reach an agreement.”
Advisers familiar with the talks say the price tag for a potential deal between Pelosi and Mnuchin is approaching $ 2 trillion. Senate Republicans are backing down from the size of the measure and Pelosi’s demands, even as Trump is beating the drums for a deal.
“I want to make it even bigger than the Democrats. Not all Republicans agree, “Trump said Tuesday on Fox News.” But they will. “
But Republicans have spent months talking about a smaller aid package, and the Republican Party’s top vote counter, Sen. John Thune, said Monday that it would “be difficult” to find the Republican support necessary for the passage of any such deal. rank.
McConnell, meanwhile, is moving forward with voting this week on Republican measures that have little chance of moving forward. On Tuesday, the Republican Party chamber will declare in favor of another round of payroll subsidies for businesses like restaurants and hotels that are having special difficulties during the pandemic.
But while the vote would record that the Senate supports the idea, it is not intended to promote the measure through time-consuming procedural steps that could interfere with a floor program dominated by Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, Trump’s Republican allies in the Senate are scheduled to support a new vote on a virus proposal with a net cost of about $ 500 billion, though it does not include the $ 1,200 direct payments that are so important to Trump. . But the Republican Senate bill has failed once before, and Trump himself says it’s too petty.
The goodwill and bipartisanship that prompted the bipartisan $ 1.8 trillion CARES Act in March has largely dissipated. It went through an overwhelming margin when the economy crashed.
Since then, Trump and many of his Republican allies have focused on loosening social and economic constraints as a key to recovery rather than more taxpayer-funded aid.
The timing is also a challenge for Pelosi. For months he has been promising a more than $ 2 trillion COVID aid package packed with Obama-era stimulus ideas.
Even though the Senate and the White House are in Republican hands, and will be until at least January, he has vigorously rejected anyone who suggests that Democrats should take a lesser deal now rather than risk going home with their hands. empty until next year.
