Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
GOP virus relief package delayed
White House yields to opposition, drops cut to payroll tax
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday reluctantly dropped his bid to cut Social Security payroll taxes as Republicans stumbled anew in efforts to unite around a $1 trillion COVID-19 rescue package to begin negotiations with Democrats who are seeking far more.
Frustrating new delays came as the administration scrambled to avert the cutoff next week of a $600-perweek bonus unemployment benefit that has helped prop up the economy while staving off financial disaster for millions of people thrown out of work since the coronavirus pandemic began.
The long-delayed legislation comes amid alarming increases in the virus crisis as the number of confirmed cases in the United States surpassed 4 million Wednesday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, with more than 144,000 deaths.
Trump yielded to opposition to the payroll tax cut among his top Senate allies, claiming in a Twitter post that Democratic opposition was the reason. In fact, top Senate Republicans disliked the expensive idea in addition to opposition from Democrats for the cut in taxes that finance Social Security and Medicare.
“The Democrats have stated strongly that they won’t approve a Payroll Tax
Cut (too bad!). It would be great for workers. The Republicans, therefore, didn’t want to ask for it,” Trump contended.
“The president is very focused on getting money quickly to workers right now, and the payroll tax takes time,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the Capitol. Only Sunday, Trump said in a Fox News interview that “I would consider not signing it if we don’t have a payroll tax cut.”
The proposed aid package was originally to be released Thursday morning by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. But the Kentucky Republican instead hosted an unscheduled meeting with Mnuchin and acting White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and delayed the planned release of the proposal until next week.
The rocky developments coincide with a higher-profile role by Meadows, a former tea party lawmaker from North Carolina with a thin legislative resume. The delays increase the chances that efforts to pass the COVID-19 rescue, the fifth coronavirus response bill this year, could drag well into August as both parties are formally nominating their presidential candidates.
Mnuchin claimed there was “fundamental agreement” on the GOP side, but irritation was growing among Republicans with the Trump negotiating team, which floated the idea of breaking off a smaller bill that would be limited to maintaining some jobless benefits and speeding aid to schools. Democrats immediately panned that idea, saying it would strand other important elements such as aid to state and local governments.
“We cannot piecemeal this,” declared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.
As a practical matter, Democrats say, the only way to prevent a cutoff of the pandemic jobless benefit next month is to simply extend it in full, at least in the short term. Balky and ancient state unemployment systems can’t be adjusted in time to immediately implement a new compromise.
“Due to ancient technology, states need between one and four weeks to adjust the $600 boost. At this late hour, the only option to guarantee benefits do not lapse is the Democratic plan to extend the $600 weekly benefit,” said top Finance Committee Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon. “Republicans rejected that plan outright. They were never serious about preventing a lapse in benefits.”
McConnell scrapped a choreographed rollout that would have featured Republicans with tough reelection races claiming credit for provisions like a $15 billion appropriation for child care assistance for parents trying to go back to work while many schools will remain closed this fall.
McConnell now says the rollout won’t come out until next week.
“Our Republican colleagues have been so divided, so disorganized and so unprepared that they have to struggle to draft even a partisan proposal within their own conference,” said Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
The must-have centerpiece for McConnell is a liability shield to protect businesses, schools and others from coronavirus-related lawsuits.
The still-unreleased GOP measure does forge an immediate agreement with Democrats on another round of $1,200 checks to most adults.
The $600 weekly unemployment benefit boost that is expiring Friday would be cut back, and Mnuchin said it would ultimately be redesigned to provide a typical worker 70% of his or her income. Republicans say extending it in full would be a disincentive to work.
“You can’t continue to pay people more to not work than to work,” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming.
The Republican package will also include tax breaks for businesses to hire and retain workers and to help shops and workplaces retool with new safety protocols.