WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday rejected the White House’s most recent offer in COVID-19 aid talks as “one step forward, two steps back,” but said she still hoped an agreement could still be moved forward.
The White House had reinforced its offer before Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Pelosi spoke Friday afternoon. President Donald Trump is eager to reach an agreement before Election Day, even when his hard Republican top friend in the Senate has said Congress is unlikely to. provide relief until then.
“Covid Relief negotiations are moving forward, in a big way!” said Trump on Twitter on Friday.
A GOP aide familiar with the new offer to be offered said it amounted to about $1. 8 trillion, with a key component of local and state tax relief emerging from $250 billion to at least $300 billion. The assistant is not legal to speak publicly about personal negotiations and spoke under conditions of anonymity.
Pelosi’s recent maximum public provision was about $2. 2 trillion, which includes an increase in trade tax that Republicans might not accept.
“I’d like to see a bigger stimulus package than The Democrats or Republicans propose,” Trump said on Rush Limbaugh radio on Friday. Earlier this week, Trump lashed out at Democrats for his demands on an aid bill.
In a letter to his colleagues on Saturday, Pelosi said: “This proposal represented a step forward, two steps back. When the president talks about a larger aid program, his proposal means he needs more cash at his discretion. “grant or retain.
She said that while her management was trying to address some of the Democratic concerns, disagreements persisted on many priorities and Democrats were “waiting for the drafting” of various provisions.
“Despite these unresolved concerns, I hope yesterday’s progress will bring us closer to an agreement on a contingency plan that will solve the economic and fitness crisis facing American families,” Pelosi’s letter said.
Mnuchin’s most recent offer also won a vote by Republican senators, who intervened in a call to the convention saturday morning, according to a Republican familiar with the non-legal call to talk about the call publicly and spoke under anonymity. of as much deficit-funded aid in the first place, and the provisions requested by Pelosi, such as expanding eligibility for the Affordable Care Act, have come to a blow.
But Senate Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell told a Kentucky that he saw no agreement to arrive early from a “problematic” scenario in which negotiating participants fight for a political advantage.
“I’d love to see us go beyond that as we did in March and April, but I think it’s unlikely in the next three weeks,” McConnell said Friday. He later said that “the first precedence of the Senate is the Supreme Court,” suggesting that there is no time to deal with eer a redress bill or the appointment to the Senate high court. Judge Amy Coney Barrett before the November 3 election.
He spoke after Trump changed course, allowing Mnuchin to resume negotiations with Pelosi in California on a broader, more comprehensive package despite the cancellation of talks a few days earlier.
McConnell remains skeptical of the option of an agreement, and has issued personal warnings that many Senate Republicans would oppose an agreement within the diversity Pelosi seeks.
“We want some other bailout,” McConnell said, “but the proximity of the election and the differences on what is desired at this specific level are huge. “
Later on Friday, at an appearance in Tompkinsville, Ky. , McConnell said, “I don’t know if we’ll get any other package (virus relief) or not. “
McConnell’s comments crowned a tumultuous week in which Trump sent combined signals and made unattainable demands. On Tuesday, he ordered the end of the talks a week after learning that few Republicans in Congress would eventually vote for an agreement imaginable Pelosi-Mnuchin.
After taking the surprise of the decision, Trump sought to restart negotiations on Thursday, but even as Mnuchin re-engaged to Pelosi, the White House, under the leadership of key negotiator Mark Meadows, he was demanding a smaller package with Trump’s priorities.
It all occurs when Trump slides through the polls and is sidelined by his COVID-19 infection. The White House does not have enough staff and deals with infections among its employees. And the president and Pelosi are attacking the intellectual health of others.
McConnell says he’s open to resuming negotiations in an unconvincing post-election session – that outlook is also murky.
———
Schreiner contributed from Sheperdsville, Kentucky.
24/7 policy of the latest news and events