GOP Senators Aim for Coronavirus Relief Compromise with President Biden
Mark Hamrick, Washington Bureau chief and senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com appeared on CBN News' Faith Nation to talk about the Biden stimulus plan. Faith Nation is seen weeknights on the CBN News Channel.
A big stimulus to boost the American economy is President Biden's vision, but it will come with a nearly two-trillion dollar price tag, and many Republicans think that's too much.
There will be a bipartisan meeting at the White House tonight that aims to bring the two sides together.
Ten Republican senators have proposed a $600 billion plan, far less than the $1.9 trillion package the Biden administration is seeking.
The GOP proposal retains the President's plan to spend $160 billion to increase vaccinations and other initiatives to stop the spread of the virus.
But it reduces the amount of stimulus checks to individual Americans from $1,400 down to about $1,000. The amount set to go to public schools would also be reduced.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) was one of the ten senators who explained his position on the issue during an interview with "Fox News Sunday."
"We're targeted to the needs of the American people, treating our tax dollars as if they're our tax dollars not just money to spend," Cassidy said. "If you say you want bipartisanship...and then you have a budget reconciliation which is chock-full of payouts to Democratic constituency groups...you don't want bipartisanship, you want the patina of bipartisanship."
Cassidy said Biden did not even make an effort to collaborate with his bipartisan group of senators.
"The President's team did not reach out to anybody in our group, either Democrat or Republican when they fashioned their proposal," Cassidy said. "So if you want unity, if you want bipartisanship, you ought to start with a group that's shown it's willing to work together for a common solution. They did not."
A Biden official says the President is open to ways to make the relief package more effective, but he is adamant that a COVID relief plan must pass.
Democrats are ready to go forward on their own and use the budget reconciliation process to make it happen.
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