President Donald Trump on Tuesday halted negotiations with Democrats on a new coronavirus relief package, claiming that they were still insisting on $2.4 trillion in new spending.
In a series of tweets, Trump said that Republicans had offered up to $1.6 trillion in spending but that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “is not negotiating in good faith.”
He went on, “I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business.”
The Democratic-controlled House passed a scaled-based $2.2 trillion aid bill that included a number of provisions for agriculture, including authorization of payments to livestock and poultry producers, ethanol plants and textile mills. Other provisions would provide supplemental payments to dairy farms through the Dairy Margin Coverage and make dairy processors eligible for USDA marketing loans.
The House bill also authorizes a grant program to help small-scale meat processors become federally inspected so that they can sell their products across state lines.
Trump went on to say that he had told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to move forward without delay in getting Amy Coney Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court.
He tweeted, “Our Economy is doing very well. The Stock Market is at record levels, JOBS and unemployment ... also coming back in record numbers. We are leading the World in Economic Recovery, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
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Responding to Trump, Pelosi said in a statement that the White House “is in complete disarray” and that Trump’s decision to end the talks showed he “is unwilling to crush the virus.”
“Today, once again, President Trump showed his true colors: putting himself first at the expense of the country, with the full complicity of the GOP members of Congress,” she said.
On Sunday, Pelosi said on CBS’ Face the Nation that negotiators were “making progress.” She said she had urged airline executives to hold off on carrying out layoffs and furloughs, saying that “relief is on the way … and it will be retroactive.”
McConnell told reporters Tuesday afternoon that he supported Trump's decision to shut down the negotiations. "His view was that they were not going to produce a result, and that we needed to concentrate on what's achievable," McConnell said.
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