As coronavirus cases spike, Senate fails to pass nearly $2T financial package

As the coronavirus continued its relentless spread across the nation — infecting nearly 30,000 people and killing more than 370 as of Sunday afternoon — Congress failed to pass a a nearly $2 trillion deal to rescue the economy and block the public health disaster from worsening.

The Senate fell far short of the 60 votes needed to pass the bill Sunday evening.

“Right now, they’re not there,” President Trump said ahead of the 47-47 vote, which happened with five Republican senators not participating because they were quarantined. “But I think that the Democrats want to get there. And I can tell you for a fact, the Republicans want to get there. And I don’t think anybody actually has a choice.”
 

Just minutes before midnight, however, the president appeared frustrated with crisis itself, grousing in an all-cap tweet: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!” 

Earlier in the day, Trump announced the feds will set up 1,000 hospital beds in New York, with Gov. Cuomo’s office confirming they’ll be in the Javits Center in Manhattan.

“From my point of view, construction can start tomorrow,” Cuomo said just prior to Trump’s announcement. “There is no red tape on the side of New York.”

Congressional leaders had emerged from a closed-door Sunday meeting sharply divided, with Democrats saying the mostly Republican-led effort did too little to help ordinary Americans while failing to restrain businesses standing to benefit from a $500 billion “slush fund.”

“Early this morning, [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell presented to us a highly partisan bill written exclusively by Republicans,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) fumed. “The legislation had many, many problems.”
 

The impasse prompted McConnell (R-Ky.) to push back a key procedural vote and sent House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) back to the drawing board.

Trump, who’s been accused of taking a Pollyannish view of the outbreak, tried to put an upbeat spin on the crisis.

“Our goal is to get relief to Americans as quickly as possible so families can get by and small businesses can keep workers on the payroll,” he said at a Sunday evening White House press conference. “You will see our economy skyrocket once this is over.”

While McConnell wanted a deal ready for the president’s approval by Monday, Pelosi said the Republicans’ proposal was so flawed she and House Democrats would prepare their own draft financial rescue plan.

“We’ll be introducing our own bill and hopefully it will be compatible with what they discuss on the Senate side,” Pelosi said as she left following her meeting with McConnell, Schumer and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), along with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

She cast doubt on McConnell’s goal of a Monday deadline for the deal, saying, “I don't know about Monday, but we're still talking. That's on the Senate side now because that's their deadline for a vote."

In taking a stand against the Republican proposal, she invoked the Pope.

“Last Thursday, Pope Francis offered the world this prayer: ‘Enlighten those responsible for the common good, so that they might know… how to care for those entrusted to their responsibility,’” the House Speaker wrote colleagues Sunday. “Democrats Take Responsibility," she concluded.
 

Since members of Congress began meeting last week to discuss the financial package, Democrats have been seeking protections for workers facing massive layoffs as ordinary American life grinds to a halt.

They’re also seeking billions of dollars in funding for localities and hospitals to fight the virus.

Schumer said the draft package “significantly cut back our hospitals, our cities, our states, our medical workers and so many others needed in this crisis.”
 

Negotiators initially put the price of the stalled rescue package at around $1.4 trillion, with the cost rising to $2 trillion after factoring in measures from the Federal Reserve.

In spite of the latest impasse, Mnuchin insisted the deal “will get done” when speaking on “Fox News Sunday.”

McConnell emphasized that congressional leaders were still talking after the failed Sunday meeting.

The “CARES Act” that the Senate majority leader unveiled Thursday included a $50 billion loan for commercial airlines, $8 billion for air cargo carriers and $150 billion for other businesses, all of which would have to be paid back. Congress would also make $300 billion in loans available to small businesses.

Further, the initial proposal included one-time $1,200 payments to individuals, or $2,400 for couples. Individuals making up to $75,000 and couples earning up to $150,000 would qualify. The package threw in $500 per child.

New York City’s Council Speaker Corey Johnson has called for extra one-time payments of $550 per New Yorker, with $275 per child, though the proposal has yet to gain steam.

Democrats in Congress want their package to include unemployment aid, expanded paid sick leave and health care for workers affected by the economic downturn. They also want safeguards against layoffs and have voiced concern about the lack of constraints on the proposed loans.

On Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) became the first senator to announce he’d tested positive for COVID-19, after two members of the House, Reps. Ben McAdams (D-Utah) and Mario Diaz Balart (R-Fla.), also tested positive. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a Trump foe, and three other senators were reported in isolation.
 

Trump said it had been a “long time” since he’d had contact with Paul. News of Romney’s isolation prompted the president to quip, “Gee, that’s too bad.”

In New York State, which accounts for roughly half of the country’s total confirmed coronavirus cases, Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have called on the feds to boost medical supplies along with setting up field hospitals.

While the White House promised a manufacturer would send 1,000 gallons of hand sanitizer to New York by Tuesday, Trump stopped short of heeding New York leaders’ calls to use the Defense Production Act to order the nation’s industrial base to fill gaping holes in supplies like ventilators and masks.
 

“We’re getting what we need without putting the heavy hand of government down,” said White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.

Trump also boasted that Honeywell is making face masks at a Rhode Island plant.

The president designated New York and Washington State “major disaster areas.” The feds will fund “100%” of the cost of utilizing the National Guard there and California. In addition to New York’s 1,000 beds, FEMA is setting up 2,000 beds in California and 1,000 beds in Washington.

De Blasio has slammed Trump for being slow to act on the public health crisis.

“We are helping them a lot and I have great love for New York City and I have great love for New York State and we’re going to help them a lot,” the president said.