House and Senate Democrats said on Friday that the cost of their coronavirus aid package has increased to $3.7 trillion but added that they are willing to shave off $1 trillion to cut a compromise deal with the White House.
White House officials said the escalating cost of the Democratic demands has complicated efforts to secure a bipartisan deal that would also extend expired unemployment benefits and critical small-business loans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said White House negotiators have refused their offer so far but are hoping for a compromise when the two sides meet later in the afternoon.
“Yesterday, I offered to them, ‘We’ll take down $1 trillion if you add $1 trillion in,’” Pelosi told reporters. “They said, ‘Absolutely not.’”
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters they have offered a deal worth more than the $1 trillion proposal that Senate Republicans unveiled in July but said Democrats keep raising the cost of their proposal.
In May, House Democrats passed a $3 trillion coronavirus aid package. Earlier in the week, Pelosi said the cost had increased to $3.4 trillion to include a quadrupling of the initial $100 billion for schools and universities.
On Friday, Pelosi said the bill will cost $3.7 trillion unless Republicans agree to repeal parts of the 2017 tax reform law and raise taxes by $250 billion in order to lower the price back to $3.4 trillion.
“If they don’t want to repeal that, then our bill is like $3.7 [trillion],” Pelosi said.
Mnuchin and Meadows signaled Thursday evening that they are pessimistic about striking a deal with the Democrats and said that if nothing significant is accomplished on Friday, President Trump is prepared to act unilaterally.
Trump’s executive action would extend expired unemployment benefits and defer payroll taxes, Trump officials said.
“He will use his executive authority to get there because we can’t seem to reach a compromise with the other team,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox Business on Friday.
