Govt Putting Virus Package Together; Biden Sweeps Primaries
This will be a busy weekend in Washington where Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to work Saturday and Sunday to get a Coronavirus Emergency bill to the floor on Monday. He wants to make sure that a handful of Senators on either side won’t be able to delay the bill with a filibuster so he may have a vote as early as Saturday.
Negotiations are currently being held between the Senate Republicans and Democrats and the White House. To stop a filibuster and speed passage it will require 60 votes but at this point it isn’t clear McConnell can even count on all 53 Republican senators, so he will need the Democrats. Furthermore, any bill will need to be bipartisan to have any chance in the Democratic-controlled House. Both Senator Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the McConnell bill released on Thursday was too “business friendly” and needed a lot more help for workers.
The big items are: checks going to most Americans, loans to major corporations such as airlines, and major relief for small businesses. Democrats are focused on major problems they see in the McConnell draft that include reduced payments to the poorest Americans who don’t pay taxes; a lack of accountability, equity positions for large companies that get aid, more money for unemployment benefits, help for hospitals, and easy to access money for small businesses. Additionally, the McConnell proposal has a provision to relax the Obamacare provision requiring health insurance for companies that employ more than 50 people, a clear slap at Democrats.
House members aren’t in town, and Speaker Pelosi has said they need to see a bipartisan bill out of the Senate before they return. She will need to have some of her ideas in any final bill and at this point she has not shown her cards. There are a lot of moving pieces, a genuine sense of urgency, but the challenge is to reach bipartisan agreement quickly.
In my view President Donald Trump could be the final deal maker. His views on these issues have evolved to look more like those of the Democrats. At a press conference this week he expressed no problem with equity stakes for companies that get government loans, and he has moved from payroll tax cuts to direct checks. If Republicans object to the size of aid to workers and support better terms for loans to big business, the President is likely to step in an bring the Republicans along, much as he did on the last bill that was written by Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
With the coronavirus crisis it is easy to forget that the US is in the middle of a Presidential election year. Vice President Joe Biden has piled on the primary victories, and it seems clear Senator Bernie Sander’s run has come to an end. Now both Biden and Sanders have to come up with a strategy where Sanders bows out without turning off his young, enthusiastic supporters. Some believe that, in 2016, it was lingering hostility between Sanders and Clinton supporters that cost Hilary Clinton the race.
Figure: Top Trump Tweets
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