White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for failing to meet Republicans halfway on their latest coronavirus relief proposal.
Meadows accused Pelosi and Schumer of using the expiration date for enhanced unemployment benefits as leverage to meet their demands for the next relief package.
“It seems like Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi are very content on allowing things to expire and try to use them for leverage to extract other Democrat wish-list items,” Meadows said.
Meadows added he was “hopeful” the discussion would shift toward a more “narrow” discussion on the disagreements over the proposal, but it did not turn out that way.
He claimed Pelosi and Schumer started “adding to their requests” and “moving the goal post” to argue the HEROES Act was not sufficient.
Check out his comments below:
MARK MEADOWS: “It seems like Sen. Schumer and Speaker Pelosi are very content on allowing things to expire and try to use them for leverage to extract other Democrat wish-list items." pic.twitter.com/CPuT8HjtC9
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) July 29, 2020
Meadows told reporters focusing on what Republicans and Democrats can agree on is a good place to start.
“If we can start a discussion on what we agree upon, then that would be a good foundation to actually reach some kind of an agreement in the short term. I don’t anticipate that will happen today. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if that does happen,” Meadows said.
He is not the first one to indicate Republicans and Democrats have a long way to go when it comes to negotiations over the next relief package.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday both parties are “very far apart” on reaching a stimulus deal, as IJR previously reported.
Trump echoed Mnuchin’s comments claiming Democrats are not “taking care” of Americans.
Meadows’ comments come days before enhanced unemployment benefits are officially scheduled to expire.
The federal benefit would be slashed from $600 to $200 under the new proposal introduced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
