President Joe Biden wants to talk with Republicans but isn’t making any concessions yet on a sprawling COVID stimulus plan.
“We’re facing an economic crisis brought on by a public health crisis, and we need urgent action to combat both,” Biden posted on Twitter early Monday morning.
The president invited a group of 10 compromise-minded GOP senators to a Monday afternoon White House sit down to discuss their proposal for a much smaller relief package.
The group includes prominent moderates Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. LIsa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), along with seven others.
“We are pleased to accept his invitation to the White House tomorrow afternoon to discuss the path forward,” the Republican lawmakers wrote in a joint statement.
Biden is moving ahead with a $1.9 trillion plan that includes a new round of $1,400 payments to many Americans, new help for vaccine distributions and hundreds of billions in aid to state and local governments.
The Republicans have proposed a much smaller $600 billion plan that they call “targeted” mostly to directly fighting the pandemic.
Vice President Kamala Harris will also attend the meeting in a none-too-subtle reminder that she could break a 50/50 tie in the Senate if need be.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday that Biden had spoken with Collins, the de facto leader of the group.
She gave no hint that Biden was planning to back away from the bigger package.
“With the virus posing a grave threat to the country, and economic conditions grim for so many, the need for action is urgent, and the scale of what must be done is large,” Psaki said.
Democratic lawmakers and party activists are warning Biden not to accept a scaled-down version of the relief package just to win a handful of Republican votes. They say such a move would put hopes for a quick economic recovery on hold and could lead struggling Americans to turn against the new administration.
Biden also spoke on Sunday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who face a growing push from the more liberal Democratic members to move forward with Biden’s legislation with or without Republican support.
But less than two weeks into his presidency, Biden expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations as the economy continues to show further evidence of wear from the pandemic. Last week, 847,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits, a sign that layoffs remain high as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.
“I support passing COVID relief with support from Republicans if we can get it. But the COVID relief has to pass — no ifs, ands or buts,” Biden said on Friday
