Another round of stimulus checks for Americans and renewal of past unemployment benefits for the millions left unemployed by the corornavirus-induced recession are unlikely to be approved until at least after Labor Day as lawmakers leave Washington for a summer break without an agreement on relief package.
And even then, the chances of a deal look grim, as each side blames the other for the division in negotiations. There have been no talks between Democratic leaders of Congress and the White House since last week, when Trump administration officials resigned and then released four presidential posts they said would provide improved unemployment, postpone payroll taxes and stop exposures. However, the legality and effectiveness of those actions remained in doubt.
The Senate officially fell Thursday until after Labor Day and the House of Representatives last week. There is little hope that leaders will be able to strike a deal in the coming days, but even if that happened, it would require lawmakers to return to Washington to hold votes.
And with the presidential political conventions beginning next week, leaders are unlikely to hold serious negotiations or recall lawmakers until early September.
Many in Washington now see the expiration of government funding as the next, best way to force action by adding a coronavirus relief package to the must-pass spending bills. Funding for the government is set to run until September 30 and neither party is likely to risk a government shutdown weeks before the election.
Chamber member Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has opposed the idea of linking government funding to coronavirus relief, arguing it is too long to wait. Improved unemployment benefits and other economic protections passed by Congress in March expired at the end of July.
“We can not wait until September 30 …. People will die,” she said, noting that 77,000 have died since the Democratic-led House in May responded to its $ 3.4 trillion coronavirus response request for relief.
The White House and Republicans in the House of Representatives oppose a $ 1.1 trillion plan, rejecting Democrats’ offer to compromise on about $ 2 trillion.
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Said Thursday that he hopes a compromise will be found soon.
“I still hope we will have some sort of bilingual agreement here in the coming weeks,” he told reporters.
Republicans accuse Democrats of politicizing the stable mate to portray it as President Trump’s fault.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Democrats want to include too many items on their “liberal, left-wing wish lists,” such as measures to raise money for voting after mail-in this fall.
“So far, it’s a stable mate,” Kudlow told CNBC. ‘They ask [for] too much money. “
But the issue became a major sticking point in the talks when Trump said he would not approve more money for the Postal Service because of Democrats’ hopes that more people will vote by mail.
Democrats argue that the money for the U.S. Postal Service is not only essential to ensuring that Americans can vote safely during the pandemic, but also to provide regulations and controls for social security.
Other major disputes include Democrats’ demands for $ 1 trillion in funding for state and local governments.
While Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin has had a productive working relationship with Pelosi, her dynamics have earned him the distrust of some House Republicans, who have generally opposed the addition of the need for more pandemic relief to Americans.
White House staffer Mark Meadows, a former chairman of the Conservative House Freedom Caucus, has been fully involved in the negotiations for the first time since the start of the coronavirus crisis. Since then, the White House has taken a firmer hand, including leaving talks last week when it concluded Democrats were unwilling to compromise.
McConnell has largely sat on the sidelines, content to negotiate the White House over the GOP position. Estimates are that half of the Republicans in the House of Representatives would oppose a deal in part because they incur additional spending, a dynamic that has undermined its leverage and negotiating position.
For example, sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) Said his hope is that talks will remain stagnant, citing concerns about adding to the deficit.
“From my point of view, the distribution in the talks is very good news,” he told Breitbart News. “It’s very good news for future generations.”
But with so many Americans struggling to pay their bills and unable to find work as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in parts of the country, the sputtering economy is worrying Republican senators on ‘ the vote this fall in an election season that is already tilting toward Democrats and will likely depend on the response to the coronavirus.
Maybe for that reason, there are signs that even McConnell wants the negotiators back in the room.
“It does not matter who says we meet again, but we have to meet again because there has been no meeting of consequences between the two parties since last Friday,” he told Fox. “That’s too long.”
Mnuchin called Pelosi on Wednesday, but that conversation only resulted in dueling statements.
“We are miles apart in our values,” Pelosi said Thursday.
