Utah senator Mitt Romney has a plan to combat the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak — give every American adult $1,000.
“Every American adult should immediately receive $1,000 to help ensure families and workers can meet their short-term obligations and increase spending in the economy,” a press release sent by Romney’s office Monday said.
In the release, Romney calls on the Senate to build on the House’s coronavirus response package. In addition to the one-time $1,000 payment, Romney proposed giving grants to small businesses that can “exhibit a revenue loss greater than 50% from the same month in the prior year.” He also called for the deferment of student loan payments and new requirements for health insurers to cover tele-health services related to the treatment of COVID-19.
On Fox News Monday, Arkansas senator Tom Cotton sounded a similar note. “It doesn’t go far enough, and it doesn’t go fast enough,” the Republican said of the House package. “We’re going to do everything we can to get cash into the hands of affected workers and families so we can all get through this pandemic together.”
Some Democrats have proposed a similar but more aggressive plan to get money into the hands of Americans during this crisis. Friday, Democratic representatives Ro Khanna and Tim Ryan released a plan to send “a check between $1,000 and $6,000 to every American who earned less than $65,000 last year.” The checks would go out “within three weeks of the legislation’s passage, followed by additional monthly payments for the rest of the year,” according to a release.
The Senate is poised to take up the House package this week after a poorly timed long weekend away from Washington. But according to Politico, that process is delayed “the bill remains hung up in negotiations”:
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were still working on the details Monday.
House sources said Monday that “major differences” remained between the White House and House Democrats over what was adopted and needed to be changed. This is slowing down the time table for House completion of the bill and sending it onto the Senate.
Meanwhile, businesses continue to close, and Americans keep getting sick.
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