After President Trump issued an order to stop negotiations with lawmakers regarding another stimulus package, a lot of people lost hope that more stimulus aid will come before the elections.
But since then, negotiations have resumed and it looks like there might be some progress starting to happen at least on some level.
In a recent interview when asked about the stimulus talks, President Trump stated, “we are starting to have every productive talks.”
“[House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] wants it to happen too. She doesn’t want it not to happen. I believe she wants it to happen because it’s so good for our country.”
“It wasn’t workers’ fault. It wasn’t our airlines’ fault. China did this terrible thing to us. I will not be forgetting about that,” he said. “We should not hurt workers. … This was a horrible scourge.”
Initially, after Trump made his tweet pausing negotiations he reiterated interest in passing standalone bills for things like more $1,200 stimulus checks.
The problem with these standalone bills is that Democratic leaders have insisted that they are not interested in piecemeal legislation and the standalone bills would have little to no chance of passing in the House of Representatives.
But based on the recent reports, it looks like Trump is now encouraging negotiations to go forward involving an entire package of aid which is much more appealing to Democrats.
Passing a stimulus package in the next couple of weeks could be extremely beneficial to many lawmakers and also to the White House.
The vast majority of Americans support more stimulus aid, including more direct payments to families.
While the economy has shown signs of bouncing back, many prominent economists and other financial experts have stated that they believe the US economy is in dire need of at least one more substantial stimulus package in order to prevent the country from slipping into a deep recession.
“Too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned.
Both Democrats and Republicans that are currently in office and are facing reelection in November feel the pressure to get something done so that they don’t return to their constituents without any progress.
Something important to remember is that 13 GOP-held seats are being hotly contested this November and the Democrats only need four net seats to capture the majority.
That is the biggest factor that gives me hope that something could be agreed to soon.
Also remember, talks have been going on a while between Pelosi and the US treasury secretary. There were even reports that they had arrived at a tentative deal that the Senate would be “begrudgingly” approve of.
So there is a reasonable possibility that a package is already extremely close to being finalized — a package likely valued around $1.6 trillion.
So while it is impossible to predict what will happen between now and the election, I think there is at least a decent possibility that something could be done.
Related
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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.
