San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
WhiteHouse’s aid proposal draws scorn from both sides
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised intense objections Saturday to a new $1.8 trillion economic relief proposal from the Trump administration, greatly dimming prospects for a coronavirus relief deal before the Nov. 3 election.
On a conference call Saturday morning with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, multiple GOP senators denounced the proposal, attacking the price tag as too big, questioning the overall direction and criticizing individual proposals, according to several people who participated in the call or were briefed on its contents. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the private discussion.
Sen. John Barrasso, RWyo., called a proposed expansion of Affordable Care Act tax credits to the unemployed “an enormous betrayal” of the GOP’s longstanding opposition to Obamacare.
“I don’t get it,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said of the giant spending proposal that incorporates a number of Democratic priorities that are anathema to the GOP.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., predicted that advancing such legislation would prove the “death knell” of the GOP majority.
The opposition was so fierce that Meadows told the group at one point, “You all will have to come to my funeral” because he would have to take their message back to President Donald Trump. The president has begun pushing aggressively for a big new
spending deal he hopes could boost his re-election chances, reversing course after he pulled the plug on talks earlier in the week. Mnuchin sent the White House’s latest offer Friday.
Almost at the same moment Senate Republicans were on the conference call, Pelosi released a letter to House Democrats that signaled the White House proposalwould need significant changes and that it took “one step forward, two steps back.”
Pelosi, D-Calif., said the president’s offer did not contain enough spending for unemployment insurance, state and local aid, child care and other Democratic priorities. She said it also includes “reckless” language on liability protections for businesses and others. House Democrats have been pushing legislation with a $2.2 trillion price tag.
“When the president talks aboutwanting a bigger relief package, his proposal appears to mean that he wants more money at his discretion to grant or withhold, rather than agreeing on language prescribing howwe honor ourworkers, crush the virus and put money in the pockets of workers,” Pelosi wrote.
Nonetheless, Pelosi
wrote that she remained “hopeful” that the two sides would find “an agreement on a relief package that addresses the health and economic crisis facing America’s families.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., alreadyhas voiced skepticism about the prospects for passing a new coronavirus bill ahead of the election.
White House and Treasury officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Sen. Susan Collins, RMaine, one of the most endangered Republican senators in November, was among a small handful of senators who spoke up on Saturday’s call in favor of a newrelief bill, people familiar with the call said.
That proposal includes provisions many people in both parties support, including a new round of $1,200 stimulus checks, small-business support and aid to airlines that have begun mass furloughs after federal aid expired Sept. 30. But in other areas, including unemployment insurance, the two sides are far apart on the price tag, with Democrats supporting $600 weekly unemployment benefits and the administration proposal providing $400.