Washington(WA)(WA), Aug 13 : Democratic chiefs slammed President Donald Trump’s administration for refusing to budge on their own own position on the size & range of the next COVID-19 relief package, as the two sides remain deadlocked over the issue.
“Democrats have compromised. Repeatedly, we have made obvious to the Administration that we’re willing to come down $1 trillion in complaint they will come up $1 trillion,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi & Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint announcement on Wednesday..
“Though, it’s obvious that the Administration still does not grasp the magnitude of the problems that American families are facing.”
The Democratic chiefs’ announcement had come after a conversation with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin formerly in the day, reports Xinhua news agency.
“An overture was made by Secretary Mnuchin to meet & he made obvious that his own own televised comments from formerly today still stand: the White House is not budging from their own own position concerning the size & range of a legislative package,” Pelosi & Schumer said.
Mnuchin, though, rebutted the criticism shortly after.
In a statement, he said the Democratic chiefs’ announcement is not an accurate reflection of the phone conversation he had with Pelosi formerly in the day.
“She (Pelosi) made obvious that she was unwilling to meet to continue negotiations unless we agreed in advance to her proposal, costing at least $2 trillion,” Mnuchin said.
“The Democrats have no worry in negotiating.”
Negotiations between Democratic chiefs & White House officials collapsed on August 7 as both sides blamed each various for making little progress.
House Democrats unveiled a $3 trillion relief proposal in May, although didn’t gain support from the Republicans.
Senate Republicans announced their own own $1 trillion proposal in late July, just some of the days before the extra $600 weekly unemployment benefits expired.
On August 8, Trump signed a show of executive orders to extend particular COVID-19 economic relief, although they’re unlikely to give a meaningful boost to the overall economy.