Prospects for more stimulus checks, coronavirus relief fade

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., 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 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, R-Wyo., called a proposed expansion of Affordable Care Act tax credits to the unemployed “an enormous betrayal” of the GOP’s long-standing opposition to “Obamacare.”

“I don’t get it,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., 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.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said that the deal could complicate floor timing as the Senate tries to fill the Supreme Court vacancy this month and hurt Republicans at the ballot box because the Supreme Court fight would no longer be front and center.

The opposition was so fierce that Meadows at one point told the group, “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 new spending deal he hopes could boost his reelection chances.