For the longest time all of the stimulus negotiations took place between two key individuals: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
But then as negotiations fell apart, Mnuchin left the discussion and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took over.
He was also always a major proponent of a very targeted approach, constantly trying to pass a smaller stimulus valued at around $500 billion.
Now that he is heading up the negotiations going forward, he is not remaining shy about how he feels about a large stimulus bill.
He tweeted today:
House Democrats’ so-called “HEROES Act” is so unserious that it was condemned by the Speaker’s own moderate Democrats the instant she put it out. Huge tax cuts for rich people in blue states, but no second round of the Paycheck Protection Program? Those are their priorities?
This is actually a pretty interesting tweet because I have not heard a lot about the tax cuts for the people who states until now.
Also, I did not hear a lot about moderate Democrats not being on board with the package the instant it came out.
So it seems like McConnell is digging his heels in deeper with respect to his opposition to a large stimulus.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to show support for a large bill like the Heroes act.
He tweeted today:
Right now, Congress should come together and pass a COVID relief package like the HEROES Act that the House passed six months ago. Once we shut down the virus and deliver economic relief to workers and businesses, then we can build back better than ever before.
At this point, I think the only way that we will see a bill passed, is if Republicans feel like it will be necessary to ensure that they win the Georgia run-off elections.
The problem is, it seems like most experts are predicting that Republicans will win at least one of those seats pretty easily.
So I’m not sure that we can count on that election right now as a motivating factor for Republicans to send out a large relief bill.
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Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.