TRUMP URGES GOP: INCREASE FUND FOR ECONOMIC RELIEF PACKAGE

US President Donald Trump has surprised Republican senators for his call for “much higher numbers” for the pandemic economic relief package, undercutting his own party’s position and justifying the demand of Democrats for bigger cash aid.

Republicans are opting for a bare-bones plan that omits another round of stimulus checks for Americans struggling to weather the pandemic-induced recession, the New York Times reported.

The comments on Twitter Wednesday morning were the latest instance in which Trump has undermined the Republican position in high-stakes negotiations, muddling the party’s message along with lawmakers’ chances of reaching a politically palatable solution. It comes after Trump was savaged for flunking his first stab at appealing for undecided voters during a Pennsylvania town hall moderated by George Stephanopoulos, when he talked of “herd mentality” as a foil to the COVID-19 pandemic. In his tweet, the president falsely asserted that it was Democrats who had opposed the stimulus checks — which have been a part of every aid plan they have proposed, including the $3.4 trillion measure they pushed through the House in May.

Democrats are pressing for at least $2.2 trillion in stimulus spending, a sum that White House negotiators and Republican leaders have said is far too high. Senate Republicans tried last week to push through a substantially scaled-back package that would provide only about $300 billion in new spending — and did not include the $1,200 stimulus payments — but it did not reach the 60-vote threshold and Democrats called the bill inadequate. Top Democrats, who are under mounting pressure from centrist lawmakers to act on another relief plan before the November elections, seized on Mr. Trump’s comments to try to pressure Republicans to bow to their demands for more spending. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said they “look forward to hearing from the president’s negotiators that they will finally meet us halfway.”

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