A final GOP proposal expected to hover around $ 1 trillion, which senators expected to present in the middle of the week, has several significant holes and unfinished pieces, according to people directly involved. It has been, to say the least, an unfavorable start to a three-week sprint to secure the second largest economic rescue package in the history of the United States.
Bottom line: Republican senators know they need to figure things out quickly, they hope they do, and Tuesday is a crucial day to take that step. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff, are slated for three major meetings on Capitol Hill to try to get things on a negotiating path.
“We’ll fix it,” a Republican senator told CNN Monday night. “Sometimes it takes time to get everyone on the same page.”
- Mnuchin and Meadows will return to the hill to meet with key senators on education and health, 11 am ET.
- Mnuchin and Meadows will then attend the Senate GOP Policy Luncheon behind closed doors to continue discussion on the GOP proposal.
- Mnuchin and Meadows will cross the Capitol to the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to meet with Pelosi and Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer.
Of note: There’s a reason why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not move quickly on a second big stimulus bill: His conference was not on board. The disputes between Republicans and the White House are just the surface of some of the main underlying tensions between Republican senators that are likely to come to the fore in the next few days, CNN attendees report. The argument will be, according to two Republican senators who support the upcoming proposal, that the unit will provide Republicans with the greatest leverage for talks with Democrats. That, in the past, has been a message that puts the conference online. But several Republicans are in a very different place than they were in March.
The crux of Republican Senate disputes
The White House. Period. The problems that have caused the most angst among Republican senators, so much so that dozens of people voiced their concern to reporters Monday night, are White House priorities. The payroll tax cut has somehow become Trump’s red line during these talks, even though a decent majority of the Senate Republican Party is cold or wholly opposed to the idea.
How interested is the President? Far beyond repeatedly threatening to veto the next stimulus package if it is not included during the White House’s private meeting with McConnell and Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, Trump proposed that conservative Arthur Laffer speak on the phone at the Oval Office to promote the merits of the proposal – and warn against limiting its scope, according to two people briefed on the meeting. (Laffer also discussed a health care price transparency proposal, the people said.)
Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the Republican Party leadership and chairman of the health committee for the Appropriations Committee, best summed up the view from the hill: “I think that’s wrong.”
Cunning quote of the day: From Senator John Thune, the Republican of South Dakota and Second Republican Senator, on the prospects for payroll tax cuts in any final deal:
“Its advocates, Mnuchin and Meadows and others, I think they will probably try to make sure that it is at least included in the first draft.” Translation and reality check: A version of the payroll tax cut will likely be in the first draft of the Republican Party, Mnuchin said Monday night. But with Republicans cold on the bill and Democrats completely opposed, a payroll tax cut has future prospects as optimistic as the dodo bird.
To clarify something here: These are just front-line disputes between Senate Republicans and the White House. There is no shortage of very real political disputes within the Senate GOP conference itself that must be resolved. With that in mind, CNN’s Manu Raju reported last night that McConnell has yet to report what exactly is in the final legislation. In fact, the people involved say there are still open pieces in the works and that they are further from a final draft than has commonly been assumed in recent days.
Unemployment insurance
Republicans have made it clear that they plan to review, reduce, and restructure the $ 600 federal unemployment improvement, which is due to beat tens of millions of Americans by the end of the month. Mnuchin said Monday that he wanted a deal for next week, so it did not expire, but lawmakers and aides agree that it is extremely unlikely at the moment. The upgrade is backed by Democrats: The House has already approved a $ 600 extension of benefits, and while Democrats have not made it a red line item, they have made clear that any reduction must be combined with other assistance .
Underlining the problems that the talks will face: Trump, in the private part of the meeting with McConnell and McCarthy, criticized the inclusion of the improvement in the first stimulus measure, according to two people familiar with the president’s comments. He criticized how it was structured and said he should never have made it into law in the first place.
The way to follow
Republicans will meet to discuss the current status of the proposal during the conference lunch on Tuesday. The intention, the senators said Monday night, is still to present a proposal for public consumption later this week. Notably, McConnell has not yet charted the path for what happens after that, underscoring that there are only so many unknowns at the moment. And the unknowns, plus the scope of intraparty policy disputes, plus very significant cross-disputes, means this will take time.
Where the Democrats sit
The meeting between Pelosi, Schumer and top White House negotiators will be the first substantive talks of any kind on the upcoming stimulus, attendees say. Schumer has already made it clear that Democrats will oppose the impending Republican plan, but he did present his expectations for the next steps on Monday night.
“I think even with this stingy bill, they will come to the table,” said Schumer. “And we will negotiate.”
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