Charlotte, NC — On Sunday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) outlined a 48-hour deadline to pass a relief bill before the election. The House, Senate, and White House have been far apart on a potential stimulus bill. In her comments to ABC, Pelosi said that if a deal were not struck in the next 48 hours, the bill would not pass before the election.
According to recent reports, the White House has indicated it is open to a larger stimulus package than has been indicated. President Trump has commented about stimulus indicating that he would like something passed.
Trump has also said he would pass stand-alone bills, for example, a bill that simply provided stimulus checks to Americans, if such bills were passed. Pelosi has refused to take up such legislation, stating that she would only consider a massive spending bill.
While the White House and the Speaker have worked on reaching a resolution, there is very little indication that the Senate would have an interest in such a bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said that Republicans in the Senate have no interest in a large spending plan. He said that he had no intention to bring a large spending proposal before the Senate ahead of the election.
McConnell also announced votes on Tuesday and Wednesday for GOP stimulus measures. This is a targeted measure to add funding to the Paycheck Protection Program. A similar bill was stalled by Senate Democrats previously.
The latest push to add additional spending in response to the coronavirus comes as the latest US budget numbers were released this past week. The US budget deficit hit over $3.1 trillion due to spending related to coronavirus.
The US national debt continues to rise and additional spending plans will only add to that. Currently, the national debt sits at just over $27 trillion.
Recent polling shows that Americans want an additional spending bill to be passed. Of those surveyed, 66% responded saying that they wanted the Senate to focus on passing a stimulus bill before voting to confirm Amy Coney Barrett.
Another recent poll shows that the majority of Americans blame Nancy Pelosi for the failure to pass such a bill. Blame was placed by 43% of Americans on the Speaker in the Yahoo News/YouGov poll cited above. In the poll from Yahoo News/YouGov, no details were given related to the makeup of the voters that were surveyed.
While the push is still present for stimulus, is it really needed? Unemployment continues to decline around the country. The latest unemployment numbers show the unemployment rate at 6.8%, nearly a full percentage decrease from the prior week.
Trump has also touted strong economic reports that are due before the election. At a recent rally, he stated that a very strong economic report would come out and show that the economy is doing fine amid the pandemic. He has also shared that he will stand with the data that is due out from the 3rd quarter before the election.
Biden is relying on American’s frustrations with the coronavirus response to aid in his reelection, while Trump is relying on the rebound to aid in his. Either way, the next couple of weeks are sure to be interesting as more data comes out.
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JD Washington is the Editor-in-Chief at The Liberty Loft and host of The JD Washington Show. Be sure to subscribe to The Liberty Loft’s daily newsletter. If you enjoy our content, please consider donating to support The Liberty Loft so we can continue to deliver great content.
