WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump ended months of negotiations on a backup plan for COVID-19 on Tuesday, rejecting the Democrats’ most recent offer and saying he needs to postpone negotiations after the November election.
Americans waiting for urgent assistance will have to wait at least a month.
On a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Trump said Democrats were “not negotiating in faith. “He told Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican for Kentucky, to “concentrate full-time” on the confirmation of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
“I have asked my representatives to avoid negotiating until the end of the election, when, after my victory, we will pass an elementary stimulus bill that focuses on American staff and small businesses,” Trump tweeted.
The president’s rejection and insistence on resuming negotiations after November 3 means that both sides are heading to elections without further relief for struggling Americans because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to unprecedented levels of unemployment and harming businesses while states impose social estating measures.
In a statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump had put his interests above the country and said he “shouldn’t weigh the virus. “
“Clearly, the White House is in disarray, ” he said.
Hours before Trump raised talks, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested Congress provide more relief, saying the inadequate would weaken the recovery from the coronavirus recession.
Markets, which had been driven by hopes of an agreement, sank after Trump’s announcement. The Dow Jones trade average fell 376 issues, or 1. 3 percent, to 27,773 after raising about two hundred issues before the expectations of an agreement.
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On a Tuesday night, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden criticized Trump’s decision, saying he had “turned his back on the small businesses suffering to keep their doors open. “
“He has turned his back on all the staff whose paintings have not yet returned, and who wonder when they will get the rest they deserve. Worse, he never tried to come to an agreement. Not once did he bring Republicans and Democrats combination in the Oval Office, via phone or zoom, to get a relief program that would help the staff and small businesses of this country. “
On Twitter on Tuesday night, Trump said he was in a position to issue an “autonomous” bill “right now” for checks collected for $1,200, the same amount provided to those who qualified for the first coronavirus relief circular.
In a separate tweet, Trump said Congress deserves to “immediately approve $25 billion for airline payroll and $135 billion for the small business pay-check coverage program. “He added that the cash would come from the unused budget of the CARES Act and that it would point to a bill “now. “
The president ended negotiations the day after he returned to the White House on Monday night after spending three days at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he received treatment by COVID-19. saying, “Don’t let it dominate your life. “
House Democrats were making a call when Trump tweeted that negotiations on some other bill stopped, according to a Democratic assistant who spoke on anonymity to talk about internal talks. Pelosi had been part of the call to tell his fellow Democrats that he was planning to speak with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin later Tuesday and that the biggest impediment to investing in state and local governments said.
After Trump’s tweet, Pelosi responded to the convention call by wondering whether Trump’s use of steroids to treat COVID-19 affected his thinking, according to a Capitol Hill source who spoke under conditions of anonymity to talk about the content of the call.
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Trump won several healing products and medications during his three-night stay at Walter Reed Medical Center, and added dexamethasone, a steroid that has proven promising for better survival outcomes in PATIENTS with COVID-19.
But like other steroids, the drug can cause serious side effects, such as the onset or worsening of diabetes, such as psychosis or emotional disorders.
In addition to the drug, Trump won a single 8-gram dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibody cocktail on Friday as a precaution. He also gained several cycles of the re-dissivir remedy and took zinc, vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and a daily aspirin. the doctors said.
Forty-five minutes after Trump posted his tweet, Pelosi and Mnuchin responded “briefly” over the phone, and Mnuchin said Pelosi Trump had “gone away” from the talks, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said.
The collapse of negotiations “puts the U. S. economy in a double-fall recession” and “opposes the new recommendations of the Federal Reserve and the IMF,” said Josh Lipsky, director of systems and policies at the Atlantic Council Geoeconomic Center. and former senior adviser to the International Monetary Fund.
The Independent Restaurant Coalition, an organization representing restaurateurs and chefs, warned that more help, “even more of our community restaurants will go bankrupt. “
Congress approved more coronavirus relief since March, when any of the cameras reached bipartisan commitments on a handful of expenses totaling more than $3 trillion, adding one-time checks of $1,200 for Americans and weekly unemployment accruing to $600. It was sedating, adding a small business loan program called the Payment Check Protection Program. Airlines have warned of mass layoffs and vacations as their billions of dollars expire in federal payroll assistance.
The last bill that bipartisan won passed in July and came not with more funds, but rather an extension that introduced small businesses several more weeks to apply for federal loans under the payment check coverage program.
After negotiations broke in August, Trump issued several executive orders to offer relief, but negotiations are stalled as both sides have been unable to agree on issues such as the amount of federal condiment up to unemployment insurance and state and local. Republicans have argued that unemployment benefits can have a deterrent effect on paintings if it’s too much money.
Both sides also ignored the amount of aid to be granted to state and local governments. Republicans hesitated to increase the deficit and said the cash would bail out poorly controlled local governments.
Trump’s tweet to imply that state and local investment provisions of an emergency deal remained a major point of conflict, writing that Democrats were seeking cash to “rescue poorly controlled Democratic states, a major crime, effective that is by no means similar to COVID-19. “”
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Trump’s tweet is a major replacement in the tone of the negotiations. Democrats were positive about an agreement reached last weekend. Pelosi said Friday at MSNBC that he was “positive” about an agreement, saying that Trump’s positive diagnosis of COVID-19 “replaces dynamics. “She and Mnuchin spoke on Monday as they continued to paint on the remaining issues of disagreement.
Trump, who had suggested Republicans settle for more help, gave the impression of inspiring conversations in a tweet Saturday, saying, “OUR GREAT AMERICAN WANTS AND ENCOURAGES. WORK TOGETHER AND DO IT. ” White House negotiators had recently filed $1. 6 trillion in relief, but Democrats clung to $2. 2 trillion for their plan, leaving the two sides separated by billions of dollars.
McConnell, who predicted a deal would be closed before the weekend, said on Capitol Hill Tuesday that he supported Trump’s move.
“I think (Trump) thinks they weren’t going to produce effects and that we want to focus on what can be achieved,” he said.
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Trump’s position to end negotiations can be a gamble for him and Congressional Republicans just four weeks before Election Day. Senate Republicans have a 53-47 majority, and polls recommend that Democrats have a chance to win multiple seats and thus a house majority.
Republicans have been blaming Democratic leaders for weeks for the lack and stagnation of long-term relief, but now their party leader is publicly pushing for discussions about another bill.
Democrats had felt tension at home. Vulnerable Democrats in the House, especially those who held seats won through Trump in 2016, have tried to get Congressional leaders to reach an agreement and asked Pelosi to take care of smaller spending to address some of the immediate priorities, such as unemployment or lower spending. resupply at scale, commercial loan program, a suggestion to which he objected. A bipartisan organization of moderate legislators, known as The Problem Solvers Caucus, has even proposed its own law to provide a non-unusual floor in hopes of pushing forward negotiations.
A House Republican, Rep. John Katko, RNY, facing a difficult run for re-election, wrote on Twitter that he disagreed with Trump’s resolve to end negotiations. “With lives at stake, we can’t avoid negotiations on a contingency plan,” he said. Katko is a member of the Problem Solver Caucus.
And Senator Susan Collins, Republican for Me, said in a “big mistake” to postpone negotiations after the election. Collins, in a raffle in Maine, said he had spoken to Mnuchin about his concerns.
Democratic lawmakers have criticized Trump for ending negotiations.
“This is not the time to cut the tide for other Americans and our states and communities, who suffer this nightmare plague and desperately need help,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.
Rep. Max Rose, N. Y. , also in a tight race for re-election in his State Island area district, called the end of the negotiations an “abdication of responsibility. “
“We may have given up until then and moved away from an economic disaster, instead, Republicans are pushing us off the ledge right away,” he said.
The Democrat-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate have tried to pass their own proposals, but neither has been able to advance a bill that could justify the law. Last week, the House approved a smaller $2. 2 trillion relief bill, a reduced edition of the Heroes Act, a $3 trillion proposal that was approved by the House in May but was never approved in the Senate under Republican control.
The reduced bill helped appease moderate lawmakers, who had prompted Democratic leaders to act to ease the coronaviruses before lawmakers went on the campaign trail.
In September, Senate Republicans drafted their own $300 billion aid bill, which would have included more unemployment for unemployed Americans, school investments, and liability protections for businesses and fitness centers, but Senate Democrats blocked the proposal.
Contribution: John Fritze, Joshua Bote and Paul Davidson