PUSH FOR $ AID PACT
‘Within reach’ as Senate haggles
Senate Republicans and Democrats huddled behind closed doors Saturday for a second day of talks to hammer out a massive stimulus bill meant to ease the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak — and which could cost $2 trillion or more.
Negotiators missed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s midnight Friday deadline as they haggled over the GOP’s plan to send $1,200 checks directly to wage earners.
Senate sources told The Post Republicans are looking to fasttrack the checks as one-time payments to those earning less than $75,000 annually. Some GOP senators questioned that cap number, calling it “arbitrary,” although it still remains more likely than not to be the cutoff.
Senate Democrats are also aiming for targeted payments, but ones that would treat recently unemployed workers as furloughed, allowing Uncle Sam to ensure they are paid their regular salary throughout the crisis — potentially for months.
Negotiators are racing the clock: Under Senate rules, procedural votes on the measure must pass over the weekend for the bill to be passed Monday, as McConnell has promised.
On the Senate floor Saturday, McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered dueling visions of what the final legislation should look like.
“We propose that this be not just a one-shot deal, but a paycheck every work period. It should go for as long as the crisis lasts. It should go for at least four months, maybe six,” Schumer said, touting the plan he has called “unemployment insurance on steroids.”
McConnell said he was interested in getting relief to Americans quickly, but warned Schumer not to let Democrats play politics with the stimulus.
“This is not a political opportunity. This is a national emergency. It’s time to come together and finalize the results of our bipartisan discussion and close this out,” he said.
McConnell reminded his Democratic counterpart how Republicans had passed an earlier House stimulus package without demanding partisan revisions.
Meanwhile, Larry Kudlow, a top economic adviser to President Trump, estimated the stimulus would amount to about 10 percent of gross domestic product — roughly $2 trillion.
The relief package currently will not include any aid for illegal immigrants — a significant number of whom participate in New York’s local economy. “Right now negotiations for the corona stimulus package are being modeled on the 2009 stimulus package, which used Social Security numbers as a guide for aide,” Senate negotiators told The Post. “This is active and ongoing, but that is the model for now.”
In a win for Senate Democrats and Trump, the bill is expected to bar large corporations from using stimulus funds for stock buybacks, congressional sources told The Post.
The situation remained fluid as of Saturday evening.
Democrats are also resisting Republican proposals for $300 billion in small-business loans and $200 billion for loans to airlines and other industries, The Hill reported.
Republicans meanwhile were able to remove $10,000 of student loan cancellation that Democrats had originally sought.
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said Saturday the “general contours” of a final deal were within reach — and that at least some of Schumer’s demands for expanded unemployment insurance had been met. “It’s just a question of . . . figuring out where the numbers are,” Thune told The Hill.