After Weekend Breakdown in Talks, Congress Continues Debating Direct Stimulus Package
After Senate Democrats refused to vote for the Republican-led legislation over the weekend, citing concerns with loans to big businesses, more details on the possible stimulus package currently being debated have emerged.
As it stands, the current stimulus package would offer individuals a one time payment of $1,200, couples a one time payment of $2,400, and families of four a one time payment of $3,000. It is unclear if larger families would receive a larger payment, and it is also unclear how having a higher income may impact the payments.
The package would also offer $350 billion to small businesses to keep employing workers through the crisis, would increase weekly unemployment benefits by $600 for up to four months, allocate $242 billion for public health, and $150 billion to aid states dealing with coronavirus and its economic fallout.
A major point of contention is additional spending to help large corporations through the coronavirus pandemic. Initial reports suggested Democrats objected to the Republican-led $500 billion in loans to big businesses, up from the initial ask of $208 billion. Leadership is still debating a final number.
However, some say Democrats are withholding their votes until additional demands are met.
On Twitter, Fox News contributor Guy Benson wrote that Democrats are holding out for “Unprecedented collective bargaining power for unions,” “Increased fuel emissions standards for airlines,” and “Expansion of wind and solar tax credits.”
Benson claims his source tells him these demands “could prevent companies from participating in loan programs altogether – directly causing unnecessary layoffs.”
Source writes, “not only are these completely unrelated to the coronavirus epidemic, they could prevent companies from participating in the loan programs altogether—directly causing unnecessary layoffs.”
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) March 23, 2020
Still, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, despite missing the self imposed weekend deadline, suggested the Senate may have a successful vote this afternoon:
“I think there’s a good chance we’ll have an agreement. But we don’t need artificial deadlines. We will get this done. We will come in at noon and hopefully we will have an agreement by then,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who made the objection, said on the Senate floor.
McConnell blasted Schumer’s move as reckless and warned the markets will now be open for three hours before they can get some certainty a stimulus bill will pass the Senate.
A vote in the Senate is now expected at 1 p.m.
It still remains unclear whether the House, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will move the bill forward.
As the weekend concluded without a deal, and Monday morning came and went without a clear message from legislators, multiple versions of #NancyPelosi began trending on Twitter.
As of Monday afternoon, #PelosHatesAmericans, #NancyChokesWhilePeopleGoBroke, and #DemocratsAreDestroyingAmerica were all trending on Twitter.
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