Covid Stimulus Update: Proposals Explained - YouTube

>> House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been catching a lot of heat over the fact that she has rejected

Donald Trump's stimulus proposal, which would be a $1.8 trillion stimulus proposal.

Now remember that house Democrats would like $2.2 trillion in stimulus spending.

And so on the outside looking in, it appears that there were enough concessions by the

Trump White House in order to make a deal.

So why is it that Nancy Pelosi said no?

Well, the topic is a little more nuanced than that.

But one of the critics is someone who we deeply admire, representative Ro Khanna who explained

his side of the story in a recent interview.

>> I voted for the original Heroes Act when it was $3.4 trillion.

I voted for the $2.2 trillion that the House Democrats have.

I believe our House plans are better than what the White House is proposing.

But the point is, I'm one of 435 members of Congress, there're two chambers of Congress.

The Republicans control the Senate, Trump is in the White House.

And the point is I can say, well, let's have a Khanna-Ryan plan or nothing, or I can say

constituents of mine are hurting, we have to compromise.

We have to get something done.

And I rather they get some stimulus check and some rent assistance than nothing.

And that's really what we're talking about is get something done.

Let's all compromise at a time of a national crisis.

>> So I agree with Ro Khanna there.

He makes a lot of great points.

And at first I thought, well, look It's not just about how much the bills cost, right?

Trump could be proposing a $1.8 trillion stimulus bill that has all the wrong priorities, that

just funnels money to corporations as opposed to ordinary Americans.

While Democrats might be focusing more and prioritizing ordinary Americans who have lost

their jobs, who desperately need unemployment assistance.

So I looked at the two different proposals and to be quite honest with you, when it comes

to what Donald Trump is proposing, it is pretty good.

It's not as robust as the previous Cares Act was.

For instance, the $600 a week in unemployment subsidies from the federal government will

be lessened to only $400 a week.

But that certainly is better than nothing, especially right now when so many people are

losing their jobs.

People are getting laid-off by these companies that originally took PPP, but now are able

to layoff workers since the regulation related to PPP has expired, that expired on September

30.

So they can go ahead and lay off their workers now and many companies did.

Disney laid off tens of thousands of workers, airline companies also laid-off tens of thousands

of workers.

So I understand where Ro Khanna is coming from and what Trump is proposing actually

looks pretty good.

But here's the problem.

Donald Trump said, via tweet, because we all know that that's how he communicates, that

he wants Republicans to sign on to something big.

In fact, he has made clear that he wants Republicans to pass a stimulus bill that does more and

spends more than what Democrats are proposing.

So if I'm Nancy Pelosi and I know that Donald Trump, who these Republican lawmakers love

to lick the boots of, wants a bigger spending bill.

Why not hold out for a bigger spending bill?

But here's the real problem.

The real problem is Senate Republicans and that always gets left out of the conversation

and it drives me crazy.

Mitch McConnell is not interested in passing Donald Trump's version of stimulus.

He's made that clear.

He does not wanna help ordinary Americans.

And I'll give you the details on that in just a second.

But John, I wanted to get some of your thoughts first.

>> Yeah, there's a few.

I mean, one is that supposedly what you hear from the right is that all of this is of course

fake, it's all made up.

And the Democrats want it to be as bad as possible leading up to the election because

that'll benefit them and it'll hurt Donald Trump.

That they want the suffering to continue and all of that.

But then why is it Mitch McConnell that's stopping the aid that would go to the American

people that Nancy Pelosi would almost certainly agree to in that case.

Assuming it wasn't an insane, offensive bill that, like you said, just puts some money

directly in corporations, which we already had the first time.

Why wouldn't he support that?

They seemed like they're saying it's the Democrats that are trying to maintain this impasse because

it benefits them politically in the short term, but it's literally Mitchell McConnell

who is in month six of blocking any aid whatsoever.

>> Yeah, you're absolutely right.

In fact, Mitch McConnell is gonna hold a vote on his version of economic stimulus that mostly

just focuses on providing PPP to businesses because that's where his priorities are.

So Mitch McConnell is the one who will ultimately reject any type of robust stimulus that overwhelmingly

impacts, positively impacts the lives of ordinary Americans.

So let me give you the details on what Trump is specifically proposing because, again,

to be honest with you, it's not bad.

For instance, the new offer proposes $300 billion for cities and states, up from $250

billion in the earlier proposal.

It maintains a $400 weekly enhanced unemployment insurance benefit from the previous version,

but for a somewhat longer duration, which is good.

That's good.

I would like to see a $600 weekly enhanced unemployment insurance benefit.

Of course it's a little less, but it would, if this passed, it would go on for a little

longer than the previous bill.

So the White House has offer on stimulus checks also includes $1,000 per child, instead of

the $500 per child provided in the original Cares Act approved in March, according to

two people with knowledge of the plan.

The increase in the payments of children appears to be intended as a compromise measure for

rejecting tax credits for children pushed by Pelosi in negotiations.

I gotta be honest with you, I would rather have cash in hand than some tax credits for

when I file my taxes, especially when the situation is as desperate as it is today.

Meaning I agree with what Trump is proposing more than what Pelosi is proposing with the

child tax credits.

Also, roughly $400 billion of the spending would come from money that had already been

approved by Congress and would be repurposed.

That's a red flag for me.

I want more details on that, and no one has looked into this or given more details on

where that money would come from.

I'm worried about that.

And just to read the rest of that graphic, so the net cost of the bill would actually

be closer to 1.5 billion since they would repurpose money that had already been allocated.

I don't know what that money had been allocated for before.

Now, the House bill is closer to $2.2 trillion in spending.

It does provide specific language on aid to hospitals, which is incredibly important.

It appears that the Republican version of the bill, Trump's version of the bill, doesn't

have that.

It also, yes, provides child tax credits.

Assistance with child care, I think that is important and the Trump bill leaves that out.

And finally, language on testing and tracing.

It doesn't surprise me at all that Trump wouldn't include something like that in his version

of the stimulus bill.

And here's where Nancy Pelosi and Steve Mnuchin seem to disagree.

The figure for states and cities, first reported by Politico, is still significantly lower

than Democrats had been seeking.

That issue has been a long-running point of contention between the two sides with Republicans

claiming Democrats are trying to bail out blue states.

Which to be fair is infuriating because there are plenty of red states who are asking for

federal aid.

So, John, thoughts so far on where they disagree.

>> Yeah, well, two thoughts.

I like the flat money better than tax credits too, but it's still, look, if this is what

we can get, then I guess that's what we can get.

But if you had sat down with every American family and told them seven months ago, okay,

so they're passing this one bill, they're gonna give you $1,200 but don't worry, in

half a year they're gonna give you another grand.

Who would have accepted that?

That's madness.

And that all along the way, Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans generally, but especially

Mitch McConnell, hasn't cared at all to help people out.

And polls show that he's up by Amy McGrath by 8 to 15 points.

That apparently you can flip the bird to the American people for months and months, as

hundreds of thousands of them die.

And maybe it'll hurt you in the polls by little bit.

What a democracy that we have.

In terms of actually passing something, I mostly agree with both you and Ro Khanna.

People need the help, obviously.

Even though you do have to consider the fact that anything that gets passed, the media

is going to, they want drama in these last couple of weeks, they are going to look to

be giving credit to the man that they haven't had much to give credit for.

But that's fine if that saves lives, if it saves people's houses, if it keeps them from

being evicted and all of that, I guess that's a unnecessary cost.

>> And so again, I really want people to hold Republican senators accountable.

Specifically Republican senators who don't have to worry about reelection.

Because they're floating around the same nonsense talking point about, the deficit, the deficit,

the deficit, the deficit, we're so worried about the deficit, they're not worried about

the deficit.

They just don't like spending any money on ordinary Americans, that's really at the heart

of this.

>> Can I add something really fast to that?

You're 100% right.

I forget exactly where I saw it.

But a lot of people who have watched this show for few years aren't gonna be surprised

by this.

Some anonymous Republicans are saying that the hyper focus on the cost of this bill and

the deficit is intended to begin that narrative for when Joe Biden wins because a lot of them

expect that he is going to win.

They wanna immediately be able to transition into, we can't afford literally anything.

So starting the conversation around the deficit is one way to do that.

And if it passes, then they will use whatever cost of this bill as another example of why

we can't afford to do anything except bomb Syria or something.

>> Yeah, no worry about the deficit when Trump successfully passed his tax cuts for the rich

in 2017.

Okay, no worries about that.

That costs $2 trillion, $2 trillion, tax cuts for the rich, no worries about the deficit,

the federal debt, no worries about that.

But anyway, I do wanna read some specific comments from Republicans in congress who

have no interest in passing Donald Trump's version of the bill.

They also deserve blame for potentially in the future if House Democrats approve Trump's

bill, the Senate Democrats would reject it.

So there is GOP disunity as Senate Republicans balk at a $1.8 trillion relief package Treasury

Secretary Steve Mnuchin has offered to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

James Comer said the following.

A lot of conservatives are concerned about excessive spending.

Until we get liability protection and spending under control I don't think a lot of conservatives

will be real excited to vote for another stimulus package.

And Representative Eric Cantor, House Majority Leader said something very similar, arguing

I'm doubtful in the end something gets done in a big, big way.

Because of course, they don't actually represent us or show any concern for our well-being.

You've got to remember there's a lot of senators on the Republican side of the aisle who are

not in cycle, meaning they're not facing reelection.

And one of the most damaging votes they could take is to spend another couple trillion dollars

spent in a relief bill.

So that's where they stand.

And Mitch McConnell is planning on holding a vote next week on his version of stimulus,

which is essentially a $500 billion bill that mostly just helps businesses.

There could possibly be a little bit of help when it comes to unemployment insurance.

But overall, his bill only prioritizes businesses and gives ordinary Americans a giant middle

finger.

So he deserves a lot of the blame and I'm just not seeing much of it right now in the

media, particularly in leftist media.

I get the disdain for Nancy Pelosi.

I certainly share that disdain.

But I do think in this case, it's a little misdirected, especially when you consider

just the disgusting, feckless behavior we've been seeing from Senate Republicans.