(BLOOMBERG) Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will meet in the afternoon to discuss more government stimulus measures, even as Republicans continue to hash out an agreement among themselves. The $2.9 trillion of stimulus allocated so far is about to start drying up while unemployment remains at levels not seen since the Great Depression.
The meeting, which will also include White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, is likely to be an “effort to scope out the Democrats’ initial asks and determine where compromises can be made,” Height Capital Markets analyst Clayton Allen wrote in a note. Republicans are expected to try to keep their stimulus bill as “small as possible, in hopes of keeping the price of the final negotiated bill as low as possible,” he said.
“Ultimately, we expect the bill to fall into the $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion range, but there is substantial pressure on [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell to keep the package at or below $1 trillion initially,” Veda Partners analyst Henrietta Treyz wrote in a note. She expects direct payments to individuals “will be the most expensive provision in the skinny Republican bill and will approximate the $1,200/person and $500/child under-17 benefit provided in the Cares Act.”
The negotiation comes as Biden is expected to speak further about the third plank of his economic plan for a “caring economy.” Earlier in the day, he released a $775 billion proposal to bolster child and elder care, possibly financed by taxes on real-estate investors.
The meeting, which will also include White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, is likely to be an “effort to scope out the Democrats’ initial asks and determine where compromises can be made,” Height Capital Markets analyst Clayton Allen wrote in a note. Republicans are expected to try to keep their stimulus bill as “small as possible, in hopes of keeping the price of the final negotiated bill as low as possible,” he said.
“Ultimately, we expect the bill to fall into the $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion range, but there is substantial pressure on [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell to keep the package at or below $1 trillion initially,” Veda Partners analyst Henrietta Treyz wrote in a note. She expects direct payments to individuals “will be the most expensive provision in the skinny Republican bill and will approximate the $1,200/person and $500/child under-17 benefit provided in the Cares Act.”
The negotiation comes as Biden is expected to speak further about the third plank of his economic plan for a “caring economy.” Earlier in the day, he released a $775 billion proposal to bolster child and elder care, possibly financed by taxes on real-estate investors.