Status of Covid 19 Stimulus Negotiations (10/14/20)
It looks as if there is a three way spilt. Senator McConnell and the Senate GOP are at $500 billion. Secretary Mnuchin and the President are at $1.8 trillion. Speaker Pelosi and the House Democrats are at $2.2 trillion.
Negotiations between Pelosi and Mnuchin are ongoing. The differences are: aid to state and local governments and aid to the unemployed. Trump and Mnuchin are at $300 billion for aid to states and local governments; Pelosi is at $436 billion. Pelosi is at $600 weekly for UI payments; Mnuchin is at $400. There is apparently a major but unexplained disagreement about Covid 19 testing, tracing and treatments.
The Senate GOP objects to the size of the package, to the funding for state and local governments, to the amount of financial help for the unemployed and to helping the unemployed pay their health insurance premiums in the Exchanges. They also want liability protections for employers if their employees and customers contract Covid 19 at the worksite or store or restaurant. Since they control the Senate, they have real leverage, but are not a part of the Pelosi/Mnuchin negotiations.
The priority of the Senate GOP and President Trump is getting Judge Amy Coney Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court. In other words they are more interested in their evangelical Christian and Catholic right to life voting base than they are with the nation’s economy and the spread of Covid 19.
Lucien Wulsin
10/14/20