US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi reported some progress in advance of yesterday’s deadline for reaching a pre-election deal with US President Donald Trump on a new coronavirus relief package, but the same core problems bedeviling the effort remain in place despite optimistic talk from the president and his team.
Pelosi negotiated for nearly an hour on Monday with Trump’s top emissary, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, and her office said they are continuing to narrow their differences.
“Finally, they have come to the table and we’re going to try to get something done,” Pelosi said on MSNBC on Monday evening.
Photo: AFP
She said the two sides would take stock yesterday, which she has set as the deadline if a deal is to be reached before the election.
“Let’s make a judgement. We may not like this, we may not like that but let’s see on balance if we can go forward,” she said.
However, with time nearly up for Congress and the White House to deliver aid to Americans before the election, the question remains: If not now, when?
It is a key consideration for Trump, who has talked up the prospect of another package as he asks voters for a second term, and for Democrats hopeful that their nominee, former US vice president Joe Biden, is on the cusp of winning the White House.
“Nancy Pelosi at this moment does not want to do anything that’s going to affect the election,” Trump said during a campaign swing in Arizona.
The dynamic has created a tricky position for Pelosi, whose tough approach to the talks amid durable Republican opposition to a potential deal of almost US$2 trillion has left all sides staring at the very real potential of the negotiations failing.
Pelosi is angling for the best deal she can get — maybe that is now, maybe it is later.
Meanwhile, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing ahead with votes this week on Republican Party measures that stand little chance of advancing.
Trump has upped his offer to US$1.8 trillion or more and on Monday insisted that “the Republicans will come along” if a deal is reached.
However, Republicans have spent months talking about a smaller aid package and the top Republican Party vote-counter, US Senator John Thune, on Monday said that “it would be hard” to find the necessary Republican support for passage of any agreement in that range.
Without an agreement at least in principle by yesterday, Pelosi says it will be too late to enact anything by election day, and if history is any guide, prospects for a deal in the lame-duck session after the election could be dim.
Pelosi calls the US$1.8 trillion administration offer inadequate, saying that while the overall offer has gone up, the details on a virus testing plan, aid to state and local governments, and tax cuts for the working poor still are not satisfactory.
Senate Republicans back a proposal that is about one-third the size of the measure that Pelosi and Mnuchin are negotiating.
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