Flawed stimulus better than none
In just over a week, President Trump has traversed the distance from declaring any further preelection stimulus bill dead to demanding a multitrilliondollar package. Last week, he ordered Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to cease talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he accused of demanding too much while “not negotiating in good faith.” On Thursday, he said the government should spend more than the $ 1.8 trillion that was his administration’s highest offer to date, accusing Mnuchin of failing to “come home with the bacon.”
Beyond the president’s incoherent, irresponsible approach to aiding individuals, businesses and governments ravaged by the pandemic, the backflip showed how much leverage Pelosi has at the moment. With the economic recovery showing signs of sputtering, coronavirus infections rebounding across much of the country, and Trump’s polling disadvantage against Joe Biden drifting into double digits, the administration’s offers are creeping ever closer to the $ 2.2 trillion mark set by a measure House Democrats passed at the beginning of this month.
The administration has acceded to Pelosi’s demands in more than just dollars. Mnuchin said this week that the administration would go along with the speaker’s call to fund a national coronavirus testing and tracing program. And the administration has offered $ 300 billion in aid to state and local governments, triple the spending approved in March and April despite the president’s avowed disdain for helping “Democrat states.”
The pain will be felt regardless of party if such spending isn’t forthcoming. It’s already too late for some government employees and services in California, where lawmakers hoped to fill a fiscal chasm with federal aid that never came. Thursday was the deadline to reverse $ 11 billion in cuts to schools, courts, parks and the state workforce as lawmakers once hoped to do with an assist from Washington.
The speaker’s power will wane, however, in a few weeks — and with it perhaps any prospect of a muchneeded federal lifeline for months. Whether the president wins or loses, the election will relieve the immediate political pressure for him to send checks to voters and bailouts to businesses. That could preclude supplemental unemployment payments, aid to devastated industries, and state and local government assistance just as layoffs, closures and illnesses are rising again.
Even if Pelosi and Mnuchin reach an agreement, Senate Republicans could render it moot, as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has all but promised to do. But Trump’s support could sway some of McConnell’s members; so could the coming election, in which several of them are endangered.
If a belated instinct for political selfpreservation has finally motivated Trump to put a reasonable offer on the table, Pelosi and her fellow Democrats shouldn’t stand in the way of sending it to the Senate despite the temptation to deny Trump an electioneve win. An unserious president kept the government from helping Americans in need for months. The House should be sure not to stand in the way now.