After many months of negotiations over the recent COVID-19 relief package, President Donald Trump has rejected the offer proposed by the House Democrats.
Trump stated that the Democrats were not negotiating in “good faith.” The President then tweeted on Oct. 6 “I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business.”
President Trump noted that Senate Republicans should be more focused on getting Judge Amy Coney Barrett approved for the position on the Supreme Court ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
Not long after President Trump made this announcement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement, “Today, once again, President Trump showed his true colors: putting himself first at the expense of the country, with the full complicity of the GOP Members of Congress. Walking away from coronavirus talks demonstrates that President Trump is unwilling to crush the virus,” according to Yahoo! News.
Pelosi’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Drew Hamill, noted in a tweet that there was a phone call between Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that lasted for about an hour on Monday where Mnuchin had confirmed that Trump had called off negotiations.
After President Trump announced that the stimulus deal was off the table, the markets took a hard plunge. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 376 points, or 1.3%, to 27,773 after it had slightly risen by approximately 200 points earlier, in high hopes of the two parties reaching a final agreement. The S&P 500 index was also down 48 points, or 1.4%, at 3,361 while Nasdaq had dropped 1.6% to 11,155, according to USA Today.
Following efforts for providing relief aid fell back in August, Trump had issued several executive orders that were specifically aimed at providing relief for many Americans who were anticipating another round of the stimulus check. Both sides were unable to come to a mutual agreement on issues, such as the amount of federal aid allocated for unemployment insurance and state and local funding.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is making the call for more stimulus checks, which is aimed at supporting those most vulnerable at this time. Powell argues that the chances of the members in Congress pouring too much into the stimulus negotiations for the economy and the citizens are far lower than the chances of not doing enough to aid the suffering nation, according to CNN Business.
With the rejection of the latest proposal made by Congress, this creates a weak format for the path to recovery for the country. This adds to the many hardships that Americans are having to deal with and puts a bigger strain on many households and businesses. The stimulus deal helps to provide support for extra unemployment benefits, funding for schools, aid for state and local governments, childcare support, funding for testing and tracing and provide funding for other appropriations.
Despite canceling agreements for the recent stimulus deal with House Democrats, shortly after, President Trump soon said he was ready to propose a higher offer for a fiscal-stimulus package. However that notion was quickly rejected by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who stated that the deal was “a much larger amount than I can sell to my members.”
McConnell notes that nearly all Senate Republicans are in favor of a smaller $500 billion aid bill in response to the pandemic. “My members think what we laid out — a half a trillion dollars, highly targeted — is the best way to go. So that’s what I’m going to put on the floor,” McConnell said, according to the Union Leader.
The President has noted on many occasions that there will possibly be no deal on the stimulus before the Nov. 3 general election.
