Trump played down the spikes in coronavirus infections across the country, arguing that they are due to high levels of testing, something health specialists in their own administrative dispute. He also argued that the economy “is expanding and growing wonderfully,” and blamed Democratic governors for the closings that he insisted were designed to hurt him in November.
Trump’s comments come as Senate Republicans are exploring new limits on emergency unemployment benefits for high-income people before losing their jobs, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of internal planning. .
If the priorities of the Republican White House and Senate are included in the bill, the legislation would effectively reduce taxes for people who have jobs and benefits for the unemployed.
McConnell is expected to introduce a roughly $ 1 billion stimulus bill in the coming days that will include a limited extension of federal unemployment benefits passed by Congress in March. Those benefits will expire this week.
Republicans seek to curb the current infusion of federal spending on unemployment benefits while trying to restrict the overall cost of the aid package, which will likely include costly priorities like state aid and school financing, among other urgent policies to tackle the problem. pandemic.
With a sizable number of conservative Republicans wary of spending too much extra federal money, Republican lawmakers have discussed proposing that the federal benefit be cut from an additional $ 600 a week to between $ 200 a week and $ 400 a week. The lower number is seen as the most likely outcome on his bill, though attendees cautioned that negotiations are fluid and details remain fluid. McConnell is expected to publish the legislation next week.
McConnell and California House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will meet Monday to discuss the emerging legislation with Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who led the talks with Congress on the four pre-coronavirus relief packages, said White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. on Fox News’ “Morning Morning Futures”.
“ It looks like that new package will be in the trillion-dollar range as we’ve begun to look at it, whether it’s a payroll tax deduction, if it’s about ensuring unemployment benefits continue, without a disincentive to return. to work, ” Meadows said.
Democrats in the House of Representatives passed a bill in May that would extend the threshold of $ 600 per week through January. That bill would increase spending by approximately $ 3 trillion, and Trump threatened to veto it.
White House officials and Republican lawmakers have argued that the current benefit creates a disincentive to work and should be phased out because they say Americans could earn more money while collecting unemployment than in the workforce.
“Every time you use federal money, you shouldn’t discourage your ability to work,” McCarthy said in a separate interview on “Sunday Morning Futures.” “We made a mistake when we overpaid unemployment insurance where it is now difficult for people to return to work because they are earning more in unemployment than they can work. So we have to straighten that out as we go.”
Democrats and many economists have called for extending the $ 600 per week increase to inject money into the economy and provide a financial lifeline for more than 30 million households.
Unemployment benefits are generally paid by the states, but Congress has intervened during severe economic recessions to add another layer of temporary aid paid by the federal government. There is often a debate about how and when to let these benefits expire. The unemployment rate in June was 11.1 percent, below a recent peak in April, but still higher than at any other time in recent history.
One idea discussed by Republican policy makers is to eliminate or reduce the amount of additional federal unemployment benefits assigned to people who earned above a certain income threshold before losing their jobs. Exactly what that number might be remains unclear. Republicans are exploring similar measures to target yet another round of $ 1,200 stimulus payments for those at the bottom of the income distribution, though it’s unclear how that would combine with Trump’s insistence on a cut in payroll taxes.
Limiting unemployment benefits to those lower in the income distribution would help the Republican Party lower the overall price on your bill. It could also lead to further complications for state unemployment offices that have already been overwhelmed by the complexity of obtaining funds for an unprecedented increase in unemployed Americans.
The fate of unemployment benefits is likely to be one of the key points in congressional negotiations, with tens of millions of Americans financially dependent on the outcome. In recent days, senior White House officials have tried to limit the extension while denying that they are trying to end federal unemployment benefits. Larry Kudlow, the president’s top financial adviser, questioned Friday that the administration wants to dismantle the program.
Over the next three weeks, McConnell has designated to draft what is likely to be the last coronavirus relief bill before the November election. The first four bills, totaling about $ 3 trillion, were passed almost unanimously in March and April, but McConnell has acknowledged that negotiations on the next package will be much more difficult as partisan tensions escalate. as the election approaches.
To complicate matters, the administration and Senate Republicans disagree on priorities in the bill, and the administration opposes billions of Senate Republicans who tried to spend on testing and tracking for coronavirus and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among other things.
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