The Senate Republicans most likely to work with President Joe Biden on a new coronavirus stimulus bill said on Sunday they would support a bill with less than a third of the $ 1.9 trillion he proposed for new direct $ 1,400 payments, aid to state and local governments, and vaccine manufacturing and distribution.
The GOP proposal, to be released Monday, would total about $ 600 billion, US Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., Said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Welcoming the GOP’s willingness to negotiate, Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that the $ 1.9 trillion amount “was aligned with the economic crisis we are facing. are confronted”.
“What we really need to focus on now is: what do we need to get this economy back on track and what resources are needed for that?” he said.
The Republican proposal came out just days before the scheduled Democratic votes, intended to avoid a GOP filibuster and allow Congress to pass the Biden Plan by majority vote.
“The question is not bipartisan,” said new Senate Budget Committee chair Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., On ABC’s “This Week.”
“The question is how to tackle the unprecedented crisis we are now facing. If Republicans want to work with us, they have better ideas of how to handle those crises, that’s great. But to be fair, I haven’t heard that yet, ”said Sanders.
The proposed Republican compromise supported Biden’s proposals for more money to distribute vaccines and help small businesses, while apparently excluding the $ 350 billion in state aid and local aid, a top Democratic priority.
The Senate Republicans who signed a letter to Biden asking to meet him included Cassidy, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, all of whom worked with Congressional Democrats, including NJ Rep. . Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., On a compromise bill on coronavirus spending last December, including $ 600 direct payments.
Their efforts prompted negotiations leading to Congress’s approval of a $ 900 billion stimulus package in the closing days of the 116th Congress.
“The president’s team did not approach anyone in our group, Democrat or Republican, when they formed their proposal,” Cassidy said of Fox. So if you want unity, if you want to be bipartisan, you should start with a group that has been shown to be willing to work together for a common solution. They did not.”
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A compromise could be the next round of incentive checks. Cassidy said the Republicans had proposed $ 1,000 payments for lower-income households instead of $ 1,400 under the current formula that would send checks to some families earning more than $ 400,000.
“The direct checks are meant to put money in the pockets of families who really need it,” Deese said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” We are certainly open to making elements of this package more effective to ensure that. reach the goal.”
Another senator who signed the letter, Ohio’s Rob Portman, objected to Democrats’ attempts in both houses of Congress this week to pass a budget resolution that would allow them to avoid a senate executive and the COVID -19 package to be adopted by majority using a process known as reconciliation.
“What the Democrats are talking about is, first, use it right away, without trying to make a two-pronged compromise,” he said on CNN.
But Portman voted in 2017 in favor of two budget resolutions that prevented Senate Democrats from repealing their attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which failed by one vote), and that allowed them to pass their tax bill that would allow for the federal deduction for state. – and local taxes. .
Democrats have also learned a lesson from President Barack Obama’s administration, when Biden was vice president. Too small a stimulus package, keeping costs low to attract Republican support, was blamed for a lukewarm recovery after the Great Recession.
After that, the Democrats spent months in vain to gain GOP support for Obama’s health bill, even passing several amendments proposed by Congressional Republicans.
Jonathan D. Salant can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant.
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