Lindsey Graham (of All People) Wants 100% Wage Replacement for UI

Stimulus Negotiations Update

I want to give you an update on the stimulus negotiations in the negotiators own words, here’s what Pelosi and Schumer had to say about today’s two-hour meeting they had regarding the next stimulus package with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

So Pelosi said it was productive, they’re moving down the track, there are still differences, moving toward a clearer understanding of what the needs are, she thinks they’ve had good sessions understanding where we need to go.

Schumer said they’re making progress, a lot of issues still outstanding, but a desire to get something done.

Schumer said they actually got granular today, went through the numbers in the HEALS Act in some detail.

It shows that both sides are taking each other seriously, because if they didn’t take each other seriously, they wouldn’t be getting into this level of detail.

It also tells me there’s at least some agreement, because they wouldn’t be digging into the details here if there wasn’t some high level agreement.

You don’t dig into the details until after there is some high level agreement on things. These are good signs.

It’s not like a bipartisan bill is going to come through tomorrow, but hey, this is a lot better than last week.

Now, don’t get your hopes up too much, because reports are that Pelosi said on a conference call to House Democrats not to expect an agreement this week.

And Mnuchin said today that a little bit of progress has been made but “we still have a lot of work to do,” and Mark Meadows said the two sides still very far apart right now.

So progress, but not that much progress. At least it’s better than no progress.

What Lindsey Graham Wants for Unemployment

Now let’s talk about G.O.P. Senator Lindsey Graham going rogue on unemployment.

So today in his home state of South Carolina, Graham was asked about the negotiations, and he claimed to have spoken with Secretary Mnuchin last night as well as with President Trump, and he says that he expects a breakthrough because it’s necessary right now.

He said that he supports the federally-funded enhanced unemployment benefits but not the $600 per week, OK great, you and every other Republican.

But then he drops this bombshell:

Lindsey Graham: So I’m gonna replace your wages up to 100% of which we’re making, but not pay people more on unemployment than they were making at their job site. So we’re gonna have to reconfigure that, and I don’t mind federal supplements continuing as matter of fact, I want them to, but it’s the ceiling should be your actual wages. Now, we’ll be introducing an amendment tomorrow to do that, and give the states another 30 or 45 days to come up with that technology. But we’ve got to get there.

Interviewer: The White House proposal had been 70%. So are you you’re saying…

Lindsey Graham: Yeah, I’m willing to, yeah… I’m the first Republican to go to Democrats and say let’s do something on employment insurance.

What?  So here we have Lindsey Graham saying that he would support not ⅔ wage replace like Johnson and Braun, not 70% wage replacement like Mnuchin and the HEALS Act, not 80%, not 90%, but 100% wage replacement.

And he said that he will introduce an amendment tomorrow in the Senate to this effect to attempt to seek some reconciliation with the Democrats.

I’m sure that amendment will have some kind of cap in there. Limiting the maximum federal contribution per week may be something like the $500 that was proposed in the HEALS Act.

Things are getting crazier and crazier right now, we have a prominent G.O.P. senator saying he’s willing to entertain 100% wage replacement, as I told you this morning we have a President who wants to portray himself as some kind of hero of the people, a deus ex machina if you will, via executive orders to stop evictions and extend unemployment, and on the bright side it sounds like more progress was made today on stimulus negotiations.