Republicans scrap Trump's demand for payroll tax cut as they cobble together draft coronavirus bill

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Source: Washington Post

Senate Republicans have cast aside one of President Trump’s key demands from a new coronavirus stimulus package, refusing to include a payroll tax cut in their opening offer to Democrats, which could be unveiled as soon as Thursday.

In recent days, Trump had insisted that he might not sign an eventual bill if it did not include the tax cut, but the plan was unpopular with Republicans. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on CNBC Thursday morning that the White House still liked the idea and would pursue it in potential future legislation.

“It won’t be in the base bill,” Mnuchin conceded. He said the decision was made to instead focus on sending another round of stimulus checks to Americans, because that approach would put money in people’s pockets more quickly. “Let me be clear: We think the payroll tax cut is a very good pro-growth policy, but the president’s focus is he wants to get money into people’s pockets now,” Mnuchin said. He added that "the president’s preference is to make sure we send out direct payments quickly so that in August people get more money.”

Democrats and Republicans had already supported sending another round of stimulus checks, and now that idea appears to be one of a few areas where there is bipartisan support. The evolving GOP plan, which Republicans have struggled to assemble, comes with coronavirus cases surging in much of the nation. The White House and GOP are under pressure to put together a public health and economic response as the November election nears. Republicans had hoped to present their plan on Wednesday but they couldn’t reach agreement, and the situation remained extremely fluid on Thursday morning as well.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/07/23/congress-stimulus-coronavirus-trump/