Trump, Mnuchin pitch short-term aid package
WASHINGTON — With prospects dim for a broader $1 trillion-plus COVID19 relief package by the end of the week, President Donald Trump and his top negotiators are talking about a narrow package focused on continuing expanded unemployment benefits and preventing evictions.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has been leading negotiations on the part of the Trump administration with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said a shortterm bill could be on the table.
Mnuchin said Wednesday negotiations are “very far apart.”
“We’re looking at a deadline, obviously, of this Friday. The president’s very focused on evictions and unemployment, and if we can’t reach an agreement by then, the president wants to look at giving us more time to negotiate this,” Mnuchin said as he joined Trump for the president’s departure from the White House Wednesday morning.
“We’re focused on those two things, we want to take care of them now, the rest we can discuss later,” the president said with Marine One in the background. “They want big bailout money for Democrats that ran cities terribly. Their cities are going down the tube.”
The president referred to situations involving protesters in both Portland, Ore., and Seattle, as well as the crime rate in New York City, as reasons he was against a broad aid package for state and local governments, which Democrats have prioritized.
“Democrat-run cities, whether you like it or not, they’re terribly run, and they’re always overtaxed,” Trump said. “What the Democrats want are bailout funds, and what we want is we want to take care of people.”
The president was flanked by both Mnuchin and Meadows Wednesday morning. The two men have been running point on Capitol Hill in meetings with lawmakers including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, whom they’re scheduled to meet with again Wednesday afternoon. There’s no sense at the moment that the two parties can reach swift agreement on the unemployment insurance extension provisions, however. Democrats have pushed for a blanket renewal of the $600 added weekly benefit that lapsed this week, while Republicans want to cut that figure to $200 through September and then some amount that allows each state’s claimants to receive benefits worth 70% of prior wages.