GOP renews ‘go slow’ approach on virus aid after jobs report

WASHINGTON — Some top Republicans see more reasons to pump the brakes on efforts to pass another multi-trillion-dollar pandemic relief package after Friday’s surprisingly positive jobs numbers.

The Labor Department’s report of a modest decline in the unemployment rate to 13.3% in May — instead of a rise to Depression-era levels many economists had been expecting — gave Republicans fresh ammunition to move slowly on a new aid package or at least scale back its scope.

“The jobs report underscores why Congress should take a thoughtful approach and not rush to pass expensive legislation paid for with more debt before gaining a better understanding of the economic condition of the country,” said Michael Zona, spokesman for Senate Finance Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley’s panel has jurisdiction over tax policy, health care, unemployment benefits and other pandemic-related measures.

The report of a gain of 2.5 million jobs in May, rather than the loss of more than 10 million some economists were expecting, came three weeks after House Democrats passed a nearly $3.5 trillion aid package. That bill calls for another round of tax rebate checks, an extension of expanded unemployment benefits, more than $900 billion in state and local funding, food assistance and much more.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., dismissed the measure as a “liberal wish list” that his chamber would not consider, and the White House threatened a veto.

But Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said the positive jobs report was no reason to ease up on relief for an economy that has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With nearly 20M people out of work and unemployment among African Americans increasing, now’s not the time to be complacent or take a victory lap,” Schumer tweeted. “Senate GOP must stop sitting on their hands. We need to act!”

President Donald Trump, who held a news conference Friday to hail the jobs numbers, said he would still push for a different sort of economic “stimulus” package, one which appears likely to be much smaller than what Democrats want.

“We’ll be going for a payroll tax cut,” Trump said. “We’ll be asking for additional stimulus money because once we get this going it will be far bigger and far better than we’ve ever seen in this country.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill have largely dismissed the payroll tax cut idea, which Trump first floated in

March. However, the $2 trillion March aid package allowed businesses to defer their portion of the 6.2% Social Security tax on worker wages, though it has to paid back within two years.