WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats and White House negotiators rallied on Sunday over attempts to secure a new round of coronavirus-related aid, with one top White House adviser raising the question of whether Democrats are rooting for economic collapse to hurt President Donald Trump and a top Democratic leader claim that Republicans half refuse to meet them.
In an exclusive interview with “Meet the Press” a day after the president signed actions intended to sidestep the deadlock, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro asked whether congressional leaders are serious about the negotiations, saying there was a “theory”. “is that” Democrats “would prefer the economy to go into the tank for another 90 days, because that would hurt the president. “
“I hope Capitol Hill has not become so cynical,” Navarro said.
“It does not help as a Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi goes out every day with her scarves flying and kills the madman out of our way, “Navarro said earlier, claiming that the White House was” ready to bow “in the negotiations.
“This should be easier than it is,” Navarro added. “We have two sides, one at $ 1 trillion, another at $ 3 trillion. The first thing you need to do is agree on what number is in between. Once you do that, step two is invented, within that, which you both agree on. “
“And then, what you do is you trade, go back and forth across the table about what you want, with respect for each other’s red lines.”
In a separate interview, Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Broke with Navarro’s analysis, arguing that the White House is the side that intervenes.
“If that is the standard, we have not only accepted it, we have offered it. We were at $ 3.4 trillion in the bill that Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats passed 12 weeks ago. And now we’re down to the $ 2 trillion mark. “They were at $ 1 trillion, we asked them to raise $ 1 trillion,” Durbin said.
“We are ready to meet the White House and the Republicans halfway. We have said that from the beginning. We have priorities that may differ from them, but as far as the amount of dollars is concerned, we are exactly where Mr Navarro suggested. ”
Trump’s measures, which he signed on Saturday, take a number of steps aimed at easing weeks of stalemate over Capitol Hill.
The actions introduce tax breaks for those making less than $ 100,000 a year, such as student loan payments, both by the end of the year. They also discourage evictions and increase improved unemployment benefits, albeit at $ 400-a-week instead of the $ 600-a-week payments that Congress authorized in the early months of the pandemic, but have since expired.
“The problem here is Capitol Hill, the swamp. The two houses that lie too far apart. The Lord and the Founding Fathers made executive orders because of partisan bickering and divided government, “Navarro told Meet the Press. “
‘But the president is taking action. His constituency, let’s be clear, his constituency is mainstream Republicans, blue-collar Democrats and independents who are sick and tired of the swamp. And he reached out and he took action. ”
The president’s actions come after another week of tensions and ultimately unsuccessful negotiations between Congress and the White House. Both sides had hoped to strike a deal that included many of the proposals that Trump tried to address unilaterally in his orders, as well as other issues such as money for schools and as more help to support state budgets which were stressed by the reaction of the coronavirus.
Democrats warned Trump against issuing an executive order, claiming the president does not have the power to control federal spending to this degree. Trump has dared to prosecute Democrats, reporters said Saturday that “Maybe they will bring legal action, maybe they will not. But they will not win.”
Durbin called the debate on the president to pursue his power to issue executive orders a ‘moral dilemma’ for Democrats, and criticized Republicans for seeking to extract the improved unemployment benefits from the belief that it discourages some people from a to find a job.
“We want unemployed people to benefit, we never wanted them to be cut off completely. I will not suggest that we go to court at this point, but some will, there will be some challenges. This fixed country club proposed by the president will be a cut in unemployment benefits for 30 million Americans, ‘he said.
“These people are not lazy people. We have five unemployed Americans for every job available. This urban legend, which I said is an urban lie, about people sitting at home, hanging out on Netflix and eating chocolate covered cherries. Listen, I’m we met these families, they are desperate to work back. “
