Pols can’t get their job done
No deal to help the unemployed
Emergency unemployment benefits that have kept millions of jobless Americans afloat amid the coronavirus pandemic were on track to expire Friday, as congressional Democrats and the White House failed to reach a deal on renewing them.
Negotiators from both sides emerged after late-night talks blaming each other for the stalemate, but pledged to continue talks over the weekend.
“Democrats have made zero offers over the last three days,” said White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who co-leads a team of negotiators representing President Trump and Senate Republicans.
Speaking at a White House briefing, Meadows blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for being “willing to play politics.”
“Democrats believe they have all the cards on their side,” he said.
But Pelosi, who leads the Democrats in the negotiations, scoffed at Meadows’ finger-pointing.
“Clearly they did not understand the gravity of the situation,” Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Pelosi’s Democratic majority passed a sweeping $3 trillion coronavirus stimulus package in May that would’ve extended the $600 weekly federal unemployment supplement through January, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refused to consider it and didn’t unveil his counterproposal until earlier this week — nearly three months after the House acted.
The $600 supplement — which comes on top of whatever unemployment benefits workers can collect from their states — is set to run out at midnight Friday, leaving the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic in limbo as lawmakers scramble to find a compromise.
The $1 trillion plan finally unveiled by McConnell earlier this week proposed renewing the federal unemployment supplement at just $200 per week.
Democrats made clear that was a non-starter for them — and Republican negotiators appear to have conceded at least some ground on that front.
During Thursday night’s closed-door talks, Meadows floated a proposal to renew the $600 supplement for just one week as a standalone measure, a Democratic source familiar with the conversation told the Daily News.
But Democrats rejected that idea as well, according to the source, who called Meadows’ short-term renewal proposal “unworkable.”
Pelosi and Schumer were expected to meet with Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Capitol Hill Saturday morning to continue talks, according to aides.
Republicans have had a hard time coming up with a stimulus plan that’s agreeable to all their members.
The party’s fiscal conservatives do not want to renew the unemployment benefits at all, arguing they are an incentive for workers to not go back to their jobs.
But more moderate Republicans want to find a middle ground, where people can still be motivated to return to work if possible while keeping the unemployment safety net intact, as the pandemic continues to put the U.S. economy in a stranglehold.
Trump, meanwhile, has been all over the map.
After first siding with Senate Republicans’ bid to shave the $600 supplement, Trump came out in favor of renewing it Thursday.
“We want a temporary extension of enhanced unemployment benefits,” Trump told reporters during an evening briefing.
Apparently referencing Meadows’ one-week proposal, Trump followed up by tweeting Friday: “Very disappointed in Sen. Schumer for blocking the temporary extension of the $600 unemployment benefits. The Do Nothing Democrats are more interested in playing politics than in helping our deserving people.”
Contrary to Republicans, Democrats have been largely united since the House passed their $3 trillion plan in May.
The feud over unemployment benefits isn’t the only sticking point holding up the negotiations.
Democrats demand that the next stimulus package include budgetary bailouts for state governments that have been hemorrhaging cash because of the virus. New York alone will need at least $30 billion in budgetary assistance over the next two years or the state will need to start laying off thousands of public employees, according to Gov. Cuomo.