The White House played down prospects for a Monday evening meeting between President Biden and Senate Republicans on coronavirus relief legislation, with press secretary Jen Psaki indicating it will be a chance for Biden to hear Republicans out, but not negotiate with them.
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© Tom Brenner/Reuters A snowman stands along the West Wing driveway following a snowstorm, at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 1, 2021. Psaki also said Biden is more concerned about his proposed $1.9 trillion package being too small than being too big. The 10 GOP senators who are meeting with Biden at 5 p.m. have proposed a $618 billion package, a fraction of what Biden is pushing. “What this meeting is not is a forum for the president to make or accept an offer,” Psaki said at a White House briefing. “But it’s important to him that he hears this group out on their concerns, on their ideas. He’s always open to making this package stronger.”
As Psaki was briefing reporters, Biden tweeted in support of his proposed relief bill and called on Congress to pass it “immediately.”
The comments from Biden on Twitter and Psaki in the White House briefing room appeared to leave little room for a compromise to emerge from the meeting between Biden and 10 GOP senators who are calling on the president to honor his inaugural calls for unity and bipartisanship.
“The risk is not that it is too big, this package, the risk is that it is too small. That remains his view and it’s one he’ll certainly express today,” Psaki said.
She also said Biden supports plans by congressional Democratic leaders, who are moving forward with a budget bill that could fast-track Biden’s plan through the Senate on a party-line vote. House Democrats planned to introduce the legislation Monday afternoon and hoped to push it through both chambers of Congress by the end of the week, though it was unclear if the timeline might change in light of Biden’s meeting with Senate Republicans.
Catch up on the most important developments in the pandemic with our coronavirus newsletter. All stories in it are free to access. The plan by the group of Senate Republicans led by Susan Collins (R-Maine) includes a new round of stimulus checks to Americans and an extension of unemployment insurance benefits that are set to expire in mid-March. Both programs would be far more limited under the GOP plan than what Biden has proposed.
The proposal matches Biden’s call for $160 billion in funding for a national vaccination program, increased testing and related health-care spending. It omits any new money for state and local governments — a major Democratic priority included in Biden’s plan — but includes $40 billion for the small-business Paycheck Protection Program, which was not funded in Biden’s proposal.
“Mr. President, we recognize your calls for unity and want to work in good faith with your Administration to meet the health, economic, and societal challenges of the COVID crisis,” the senators said in a statement.
Republicans have dismissed Biden’s proposal as overly costly in light of $4 trillion already committed by Congress to fighting the pandemic, including $900 billion in December. But the GOP counter-offer came under immediate criticism from Democrats.
“It doesn’t have any state and local money in it. Look at that. That’s just one thing of many,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview with the New York Daily News.
“We’d like to negotiate with them, but there’s lots of things in the president’s plan that are not in their plan,” Schumer said.
The Monday meeting with the GOP senators poses a test for the new president, who campaigned on his ability to make bipartisan deals. But he also faces strong pressure from the left to deliver a big new relief package now that Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the White House.
It would be his first in-person meeting at the White House with lawmakers of either party since becoming president.
“I think the Republican offer is sincere, but Biden and Republicans have VERY different ideas for how we address this crisis and voters very deliberately chose Biden’s agenda,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on Twitter. “Some compromise is always warranted, but we have an obligation to see the voters’ intent through.”
One area where Biden has suggested he is willing to compromise is on the structure of a new round of stimulus checks. The $900 billion relief bill Congress passed in December included $600 stimulus checks to individuals. Biden’s plan includes a new batch of $1,400 checks, bringing the total to $2,000. That would make good on promises Biden made to Georgia voters ahead of a special Senate election in early January that Democrats won, giving them the Senate majority.
Biden’s plan phases out checks for individuals making $75,0000 a year and couples making $150,000 a year.
The GOP plan reduces the size of the checks to $1,000 from $1,400, and caps the income eligibility levels at $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for couples. The GOP plan would also send just $500 to children and adult dependents, compared with $1,400 in the Biden plan.
Because of how dependents are counted in the Biden proposal, some families making $300,000 or more a year could see some benefit from the stimulus checks, leading senators of both parties to suggest the checks should be more targeted.
Biden’s plan includes an array of other items omitted from the GOP proposal, including rental assistance and eviction forbearance, an increased child tax credit, and an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Biden’s plan would also increase emergency unemployment benefits from $300 a week to $400 a week and extend them through September; the GOP plan would leave the payments at $300 a week and extend them through June. If Congress does not act, the enhanced unemployment insurance will expire in mid-March.
In addition to Collins, the senators involved in Monday’s meeting are Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), Bill Cassidy (La.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Todd C. Young (Ind.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), and Mike Rounds (S.D.).
The significance of assembling a group of 10 Republican senators is that, if joined by Democrats, they could reach the 60-vote threshold needed to pass legislation under normal Senate procedures. The Senate is split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, with Democrats holding the majority because Vice President Harris can break ties.
the corrupt cabal of the fiden crime family - makes it clear that 'Unity" - to republicans and conservatives - Means 'Obey, or be turned over by the NSA to AOC's re-education camps!!!
we ( reigning rulers of teh DPST/ccp party) have already identified rep marjorie greene for one of our first 're-education projects"!!!
