After abruptly canceling any further stimulus talks, Trump continues to say he'll sign individual stimulus measures if "Nancy" or Speaker Nancy Pelosi sends them to his desk, but Trump clearly never watched Schoolhouse Rock.
Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, also spoke to reporters this morning and said Trump would like to sign individual bills for airline aid and stimulus checks, for example, but it doesn't necessarily matter what Trump wants or even what House Democrats want.
What do Senate Republicans want? At least two of them came out in opposition to stimulus this morning.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Two U.S. Republican senators said on Thursday that lawmakers should not consider legislation providing grants to airlines unless there are adequate taxpayer protections and suggested that airlines tap unused federal loans that were made available to them in a first round of aid.
“No one wants to see layoffs, but we have a responsibility to ensure that taxpayer resources are used in an appropriate and equitable manner,” Senators Pat Toomey and Mike Lee said in a statement, noting that no other Fortune 500 companies have received taxpayer-funded grants.
Personally I don't know if bailing out the airlines again is a good idea or not, but I do know that Senate Republicans are irrevocably full of shit. They're more than happy to spend "taxpayer resources" in far more dubious ways.
Even losing a handful of Senate Republican votes would be enough to block new stimulus measures and that's why Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had to strip their stimulus proposal from $1 trillion down to $300 billion to attract a simple majority of Republicans.
If they won't even support aid for corporate airlines, they aren't going to support more stimulus checks or expanded unemployment benefits.
This is why House Democrats and Speaker Pelosi have never agreed to pass individual bills rather than a larger package. It would be too simple and easy for Senate Republicans to pick and choose who they help and who they screw if it's not all in one package.
I'm concerned that Senate Republicans won't agree to any additional stimulus even after the election is over. And if they don't, that would mean the extended unemployment program that covers gig-economy workers and the long-term unemployed will expire at the end of the year. The total number of people receiving benefits is still above 25 million according to today's report from the Labor Department. The next president and session of Congress are going to have ongoing and new economic disasters to wrestle with.