President Donald Trump is advising Republican lawmakers to “go for the much higher numbers” regarding the coronavirus relief package debate.
The president took to Twitter on Wednesday with a stance relatively different from Republican lawmakers’ approach to their latest proposed coronavirus relief package.
Although the president described Democratic lawmakers as “heartless,” he ultimately advised his Republican colleagues to consider the Democratic approach and “go for the much higher numbers.”
“Democrats are ‘heartless’. They don’t want to give STIMULUS PAYMENTS to people who desperately need the money, and whose fault it was NOT that the plague came in from China,” Trump tweeted.
He continued, “Go for the much higher numbers, Republicans, it all comes back to the USA anyway (one way or another!).”
Democrats are “heartless”. They don’t want to give STIMULUS PAYMENTS to people who desperately need the money, and whose fault it was NOT that the plague came in from China. Go for the much higher numbers, Republicans, it all comes back to the USA anyway (one way or another!).
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2020
Shortly after Trump’s tweet, some Republican lawmakers shared their thoughts about increasing the amount of the next coronavirus relief package.
In fact, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) warned against passing a bill worth more than $1.5 trillion not long after the president abruptly changed his stance.
“If the number gets too high, anything that got passed in the Senate will be passed mostly with Democrat votes and a handful of Republicans,” Thune told reporters.
He added, “So it’s gonna have to stay in a, sort of, realistic range, if … we want to maximize, optimize the number of Republican senators that will vote for it.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also responded to Trump’s tweet with a statement of their own.
“We are encouraged that after months of the Senate Republicans insisting on shortchanging the massive needs of the American people, President Trump is now calling on Republicans to ‘go for the much higher numbers’ in the next coronavirus relief package,” the statement read.
The top-ranking Democrats also expressed optimism about the possibility of coming to an agreement on the next bill.
The statement continued, “We look forward to hearing from the President’s negotiators that they will finally meet us halfway with a bill that is equal to the massive health and economic crises gripping our nation.
House Democrats passed a $3 trillion dollar in May, as previously reported on IJR.
However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not bring the bill to the Senate floor to be voted on but, instead, countered with a “skinny” relief bill that was ultimately blocked by Senate Democrats.