President Donald Trump’s administration has presented four separate coronavirus stimulus plans to Congress and Democrats have rejected each of them, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows announced Friday.
Meadows has been on Capitol Hill negotiating with Democrats all week, but to no avail, saying Democrats have not even proposed a counter offer. If a deal cannot be reached, unemployment insurance and protections against evictions may expire. (RELATED: Democratic Leaders In Congress Reject Republicans’ $1 Trillion Coronavirus Stimulus Plan)
Meadows in the briefing room to take on Dems over covid package with protections that expire today. “Democrats believe they have all the cards on their side and they are willing to play” and he adds Democrats have “made zero offers”
— Kelly O’Donnell (@KellyO) July 31, 2020
Meadows’ statement comes one day after Trump urged Democrats to “reject partisan voices” within their party and work with Republicans. Trump also laid out three demands for the potential bill, including a temporary extension of unemployment insurance – more than $100 billion – a temporary pause on evictions, and more than $100 billion in funding for schools to reopen safely in the fall.
“To pass a bill, Democrats must reject the extreme partisan voices in their party,” he stated Thursday. “They’re looking at November 3, and probably a day later they’ll say, ‘ok, let’s open up the country.’ But the Democrats have to reject the extreme partisan voices in their party so we can get our country going even quicker than it’s going right now.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed his own stimulus bill earlier this week, but Democrats and even many Republicans flatly rejected it.