This is a breaking stimulus news update, Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke again today and unfortunately did not reach an agreement today.
So, what will happen now is, as I told you Steny Hoyer said this morning, the House will now proceed today with a vote on its own $2.2-trillion updated HEROES Act. Pelosi said, “Today, Secretary Mnuchin and I had an extensive conversation and we found areas where we are seeking further clarification. Our conversations will continue. We will be proceeding with our vote tonight on the updated HEROES Act in order to formalize our proffer to Republicans in the negotiations to address the health and economic catastrophe in our country.”
Now, she didn’t say that negotiations are over, nail in the coffin, but my read here, and this is just speculation of course, but my read is that Pelosi did not want to go very far below $2.2 trillion and that Mnuchin likely was not willing to go up that high, and given the price tag of the Democrats’ updated HEROES Act that we’ve known for a few days now, this was probably not something that we didn’t see coming.
So, look, as we’ve kind of been thinking for a while now, odds just look slimmer and slimmer for more congressional stimulus at least before the election, Pelosi said she wanted a deal before the House goes home, we’ll have to see if that realizes, House is scheduled go home at the end of this week, and it’s a distinct possibility that this updated HEROES Act will be a last hurrah of sorts, a messaging bill that House Dems can go home with before the November Third elections and point to as something they did. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave his own take on stimulus negotiations earlier today, saying, “We are very, very far apart.”
In terms of more stimulus, a second stimulus check, I continue to believe that, and this is far from a guarantee, I am not saying this is happening, so please don’t misquote me on this, but I think that our best chance, not saying it’s a good chance, just saying it’s our best chance, is that perhaps Donald Trump, especially after a debate performance last night that most people agree did not really do him any favors, not that Biden was necessarily stellar himself, but honestly Trump came off just looking like a bully, so perhaps Trump will attempt to pull all the punches and send out stimulus payments himself.
That is something that I think most of us here on the channel would not put beyond him, but again that in and of itself is far from guaranteed, so don’t want to get anybody’s hopes up, but I just wanted to give this brief update on what transpired today between Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
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