An agreement between Democrats and the White House on a stimulus package could come this week, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, despite President Donald Trump’s issuance of executive measures this weekend – or maybe because of it.
“I think there is a compromise if the Democrats are willing to be reasonable. There is still a lot of things we need to do and that we’ve agreed on,” Mnuchin said Monday in an interview with CNBC.
While he did not disclose details on either side’s positions, Mnuchin said that if the two parties meet, he believes a deal could be hammered out by the end of the week.
“If we can get a fair deal, we’ll do it this week.”
On Monday, Trump tweeted that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "want to meet to make a deal" on a coronavirus stimulus package.
"So now Schumer and Pelosi want to meet to make a deal," the president tweeted Monday. "Amazing how it all works, isn't it."
"Where have they been for the last 4 weeks when they were 'hardliners', and only wanted BAILOUT MONEY for Democrat run states and cities that are failing badly?" Trump continued. "They know my phone number!"
Both Democrats and White House negotiators have said they want to continue negotiations for another stimulus package that would be somewhere between the $1 trillion package proposed by Republicans and the more than $3 trillion package passed last spring in the Democratic-led House.
“We are ready to meet the White House and Republicans halfway,” Senate Democratic Minority Whip Dick Durbin, of Illinois, said Sunday. “We’ve said that from the start.”
In addition to what Trump outlined in his executive measures, the package could include a $1,200 stimulus check for millions of Americans and an extension of the Payroll Protection loan program to encourage businesses to hold onto employees.
Trump announced at his Bedminster, New Jersey, country club Saturday that he was postponing payroll taxes through the end of the year, extending the federal unemployment benefit at $400 a week (with states picking up part of the cost), waiving student debt interest payments and helping people “stay in their homes.”
Cox Media Group
