Time seems to be a concern for the involved parties as they are still hopeful of the arrival of Stimulus Check Round 2.
A week has passed since Nancy Pelosi the House Speaker has failed to find a middle ground with Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary to settle the gap on a deal worth $300 billion. Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority leader has seen his attempts fail to pass the “Skinny” bill. Consequently, the hope of having the Stimulus Check Round 2 prior to the US elections on November 3 is fading away.
Pelosi has confirmed that she had expected to find a solution to the problems within Friday. In her interview with Jake Tapper on CNN, she has remained optimistic and is awaiting a final affirmation from the White House. She expects Steven Mnuchin to have a reply on Monday to the concerns raised by the Democrats to the White House and the White House being in agreement with the procedures of the Testing of CoronaVirus.
Pelosi has further rebuffed any remarks of shifting the goal-post made by Mark Meadows, Chief of staff by claiming that it was indeed the White House who is guilty of doing it.
The Stand of the Republicans Regarding Stimulus Check Round 2
President Donald Trump along with Mark Meadows has shown their intention of getting the Republicans to back any form of a deal with the Democrats that they can find an agreement on. But it was found that McConnell earlier during the week had counseled the House to refuse any form of negotiations regarding the stimulus package since he believed that House Speaker Pelosi has her own agendas behind the idea of Stimulus Check Round 2.
McConnell has given his opinion that he might well be open to bring up any form of a deal to vote but the Senate might not have an adequate number of votes to make the deal pass. Republicans are reportedly reluctant to allow the spending amount of $2.2 trillion of the Democrats to pass. Similarly, there has been an unwillingness to pass the legislation of the spending amount of $1.9 trillion offered by the House.
Concerns for McConnell
McConnell’s attempt of passing two lesser deals by putting it into vote was labeled as “show votes” by Chuck Schumer, the Minority Leader. Meanwhile, the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett in the Supreme Court remains the main objective for McConnell as voting is set to happen on October 26.
Pelosi Optimistic about Stimulus Check Round 2
House Speaker Pelosi is optimistic about reaching an agreement and is keen to get a deal done even if it is after the US elections. She would not consider the newly formed Congress if the Democrat Party is able to gain control of the House, by winning the election. This seems very likely as, given the current situation, the early predicted results of the election show that Joe Biden and his Democrats have a higher chance of winning than the current President of the US.
Time remains a major concern as with the US elections just around the corner, it is feared that the legislation for Stimulus Check Round 2 might not be able to pass the two Congress houses before November comes to an end.
