The US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, will advise US president Donald Trump to take economic measures against the coronacris by decree. He announced this after negotiations with Democratic Congressmen had not led to an agreement.
Negotiations on a new comprehensive package of incentives to take up to two weeks, but the White House and the Democrats don’t seem to be able to come to terms. The level of support alone is the subject of discussion. The Democrats initially wanted to release some 3.4 trillion dollars for new support, while the White House would prefer an amount of 1 trillion dollars.
The proposal by Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic president of the House of Representatives, for a compromise sum of 2.4 trillion was rejected by the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“I told them not to come back until they were willing to offer a higher price,” said Pelosi after the failed talks.
Mnuchin said that Pelosi is not prepared to reach a partial agreement. At certain points of dispute, such as the level of additional unemployment benefits in COVID time, he would have made a move. There was also no agreement in discussions on financial assistance to states and local authorities, another important point of pain.
Many of the support measures introduced since the corona crisis are about to expire or have already ended. Republicans and Democrats therefore agree that new incentives should be introduced. For example, unemployment in the world’s largest economy, despite an improvement in recent months, is still high.
Trump announced earlier this week that he would take decisions on his own initiative on crisis measures in the absence of an agreement. For example, he would like to extend by decree additional support for the unemployed, postpone the collection of payroll tax and prevent tenants from being evicted. Such interventions could be done this weekend, said White House chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
About the author: Jeff Roper
Jeff Roper has been teaching journalism for more than five years. A theorist who nevertheless took up some practice. He is fond of the history of journalism and journalism.
