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]]>EL PASO, Texas — El Paso city, county and health leaders held a briefing on Thursday afternoon to provide an update on the community’s Covid-19 situation.
They offered a word of warning about avoid family gatherings and house parties headed into the Labor Day holiday weekend, along with a reminder to follow state and local health orders.
“Every time we have had a holiday, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, we have had spikes in positives because of the lack of discipline with family gatherings,” Mayor Dee Margo said.
Margo explained that with an 80% Hispanic county, El Paso has a highly vulnerable minority population, especially going into flu season.
County Judge Ricardo Samaniego was also quick to reflect on past surges of coronavirus tied to three-day weekends.
“Our community here in El Paso, we do not need another surge and the potential for the surge always happens during one of these holidays,” Samaniego said.
Optimism after no coronavirus deaths were reported Wednesday was tempered with El Paso reporting eight additional Covid-19 deaths on Thursday.
There were also 72 new virus cases reported and still 107 additional deaths “under investigation.” But numbers for hospitalizations and ICU patients were down.
City-County Health Authority Dr. Hector Ocaranza said if El Pasoans follow protocols like social distancing, wearing masks and getting tested, dealing with the upcoming flu season could be easier.
“If we come as a community and we come together and protect each other, we will be able to go through this winter season in a safer way,” Ocaranza said.
Thursday’s briefing came a day after Ocaranza told ABC-7 that while officials “know that there’s gonna be a risk,” he’s still “excited” for El Paso children to return to school classrooms.
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]]>The post Black male leaders warn Biden ‘will lose’ election if he doesn’t name Black female running mate appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>A group of over 100 Black male leaders is declaring that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “has” to name a Black woman as his running mate.
In a letter made public on Monday, the signatories warned the former vice president that “failing to select a Black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election.”
WATERS SAYS BIDEN ‘CAN’T GO HOME WITHOUT BLACK WOMAN BEING VP’
And pointing to the intense scrutiny some of the running mate contenders have endured in recent weeks, the group wrote that it “disgusts us that Black women are not just being vetted in this VP process but unfairly criticized and scrutinized.”
The letter’s co-signers – which include actors, musicians, entertainers, radio hosts, filmmakers, academics, politicians, lawyers, athletes, pastors, business leaders, restaurateurs and activists – emphasized that they “stand in solidarity” with more than 700 Black women who last week signed a letter demanding that Biden choose a Black running mate.
At the top of the list is rapper, record executive and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs, who’s warned Biden multiple times this spring and summer not to take the Black vote for granted.
Right below Combs on the list is popular nationally syndicated morning radio talk show host Lenard McKelvey, who’s better known as “Charlamagne Tha God.”
Biden sparked controversy in May in an interview with Charlamagne Tha God when the former vice president suggested that voters unsure about whether to support him or President Trump “ain’t Black.” Hours later, Biden expressed regret for the comments, saying “I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.”
Biden said he understood the comments sounded like he was taking the Black vote “for granted” but insisted that wasn’t the case. He ran into trouble again last week, walking back comments that seemed to question diversity within the African American community.
BIDEN EXPRESSES REMORSE OVER ‘YOU AIN’T BLACK’ COMMENTS
Biden’s long had a strong relationship with Black leaders and voters. He served eight years as vice president to President Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president. And strong support from Black voters helped Biden bounce back from initial primary defeats earlier this year to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination.
The letter argued that “the urgency” for Biden to name a Black woman as his running mate “has gone from something that SHOULD happen to something that HAS to happen. It disgusts us that Black women are not just being vetted in this VP process but unfairly criticized and scrutinized.”
The letter also posed a series of questions.
“Was Joe Biden ever labeled ‘too ambitious’ because he ran for president three times? Should President Obama not have made him the VP because he had to worry about his ‘loyalty’ when he clearly had AMBITIONS to be president himself? Why does Senator Kamala Harris have to show remorse for questioning Biden’s previous stance on integrated busing during a democratic primary debate?” it asked.
And pointing to tough-on-crime measures Biden championed as a senator from Delaware during the 1980s and 1990s – laws that were later blamed for unfairly targeting Black people and other minorities – the letter asked whether Democratic Party leaders, allies or donors have “ever required Joe Biden to show remorse for the 1986 or 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse bills, which established mandatory minimum sentencing and subsequently crack-cocaine sentencing disparities, and by his own admission, led to mass incarceration?”
“What about the 1994 Crime Bill? Let’s be clear about the kind of remorse and reckoning that matters in 2020 when the Black community is still suffering the consequences for these oppressive measures. So, Black women are the only ones required to stay in their place and to show remorse for even questioning their own oppression?” the co-signers asked.
Biden has made fighting for civil rights and taking aim at systemic racism a central tenet of his 2020 presidential campaign. And he’s heavily criticized Trump on the issue, labeling him a “racist” president.
BRAZILE: BIDEN WOULD BENEFIT BY NAMING BLACK WOMAN AS VP
Polls indicate Biden holds a massive advantage over Trump among Black voters – but not as large as the margins enjoyed by Obama in 2008 and 2012 and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Trump has his own challenges with Black voters, having repeatedly taken aim at those demonstrating this spring and summer for racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police — and labeling the Black Lives Matter term a “symbol of hate.” The president sparked controversy again this summer by retweeting a video of an apparent Trump supporter chanting “white power.”
But the letter warned that “failing to select a Black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election. We don’t want to choose between the lesser of two evils and we don’t want to vote the devil we know versus the devil we don’t because we are tired of voting for devils—period.”
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]]>The post EU leaders strike ‘historic’ $2 trillion deal to rebuild Europe’s economy appeared first on Virus Reports.
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]]>The post E.U. leaders agree to $859 billion coronavirus plan to steer bloc out of what could be worst economic straits since World War II appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>BRUSSELS — European leaders on Tuesday morning agreed to a vast spending plan to rescue the economies of coronavirus-hit countries, overcoming deep-seated divisions on the extent to which rich European Union nations should commit to helping poorer ones.
The deal on a $2.1 trillion E.U. budget and rescue package came after a marathon four days of grinding discussions among members of the 27-nation union.
The negotiations had been bogged down by the objections of a handful of rich, northern countries on the scope of the fund and the strings attached to it.
But faced with the prospect of the worst economic blow since World War II, they hammered out a compromise. E.U. officials described it as a milestone that will shape how member states live with one another for years to come.
“Deal,” tweeted European Council President Charles Michel after talks that lasted through the night.
A draft of the final agreement earmarks $859 billion in loans and grants to largely be spent over the next four years. Tourism-dependent Italy, Spain and Greece are set to be the biggest beneficiaries, with the pandemic decimating the industry.
Discussions had been tense.
Over alfresco breakfasts, midday french-fry breaks and late-night haggling sessions, leaders fought with one another using increasingly bitter rhetoric.
The main disagreement between the leaders of a handful of self-dubbed “frugal” countries — the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Denmark and Finland — and their peers was about how much money to ship to hard-hit countries such as Italy and Spain and how much oversight donor countries ought to have over how the funds are spent.
In crises, the E.U. has typically offered loans, not grants, and demanded economic reforms in return. The “frugals” wanted to keep it that way. The others didn’t, offering a vision that would be a small step closer to a federal European Union that more closely resembles the United States, where richer states subsidize poorer ones.
To appease them, the portion of grants in the deal was trimmed to $358 billion and the objectors were granted billions more in rebates from their contribution to the shared E.U. budget.
In a win for Hungary and Poland, stipulations that tied access to funds to upholding the rule of law were rolled back in the draft. Both countries have been censured by Brussels as their leaders have moved against their political opponents and stripped the independence of the judiciary.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel teamed up in May to propose $570 billion in grants to respond to the pandemic, with the German leader abandoning her long-held caution about handing her taxpayers’ money to poorer nations without asking for it to be repaid. Merkel called it a “one-off,” but some analysts dubbed it Europe’s “Hamiltonian moment” — a burst of centralization that would forever hand more power to Brussels.
“It’s an upgrading of supranational institutions’ role and power. It’s really upgrading them in a very significant way,” said Rosa Balfour, the director of the Brussels office of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank.
The need to agree on an ambitious plan to react to the crisis drew the leaders together in person Friday, despite the risks, as they attempted the biggest and highest-level gathering of world leaders since the pandemic largely ground the world to a halt earlier this year. They had met by videoconference from their capitals, but diplomats said there is little substitute for face-to-face discussions to resolve sharp disagreements.
Leaders began their meetings Friday with careful adherence to social distancing rules: Many of them were masked, and they met in a vast room built to seat 330. Merkel was even photographed admonishing Bulgaria’s leader for allowing his mask to slip off his nose. But the masks came off as the discussions devolved, and leaders, ambassadors and advisers huddled close together to examine budget figures and new formulas. Some smaller negotiation sessions did take place on outdoor terraces and balconies, where the viral risk is presumably lower.
“Are the 27 leaders who are responsible to the peoples of Europe capable of building European unity, of building trust? Or will we present the face of a weak Europe, undermined by mistrust, and divided?” Michel asked leaders late Sunday during another round of negotiations that broke just before 6 a.m. Monday. He noted that worldwide deaths from the coronavirus had been tallied to have surpassed 600,000 on Sunday as they negotiated, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.
As she entered discussions Monday, Merkel said it was clear they would be tough. “Yet exceptional situations also require extraordinary efforts,” she said. “We have lived up to this so far and I hope that the remaining path, which will not be easy, can still be covered.”
As tensions rose the previous evening, Macron thumped on the table and lashed out at leaders including Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, whom he derided for leaving the meeting room to take phone calls even though leaders were speaking.
“If we don’t have the required spirit of compromise and ambition today, we risk coming back in tougher times,” Macron said before the deal was reached Monday. “It will cost us more.”
The other funds being negotiated at the meeting were loans that would address the coronavirus crisis as well as the $1.2 trillion E.U. budget, a spending plan that covers agricultural subsidies, scientific research and road repairs, among other things, that is negotiated once every seven years.
For Merkel, the plans will set her legacy. She is set to retire next year after 16 years in office and years as undisputedly the most powerful leader in Europe. Her careful style has made her a dealmaker who will not be easily replaced — leading some analysts to suggest she is trying to hand more power to Brussels to keep the balance of power after she is gone.
“It’s very unlikely there will be a dealmaker, someone who can pull all the threads together” after Merkel, Balfour said.
At the summit, the biggest disagreements were about the crisis effort. The negotiations trimmed back the amount of cash grants at play, currently around $445 billion, and leaders haggled over how many strings would be attached to the cash. Italy, Spain and Poland would be the biggest beneficiaries of the plan, according to initial formulas that tied funds to their pre-pandemic unemployment rate and economies.
Dutch leaders and their allies said countries such as Italy and Spain are to blame for pre-pandemic economic difficulties that left them struggling to pay their way out of the current crisis. They said they do not want to send money to those countries if they have no guarantees of economic reform in return.
The Netherlands wants “truly enforcing reforms in exchange for loans,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday. “And if loans still have to become subsidies, then these reforms must really be enforceable” by allowing E.U. leaders to have oversight, he said.
Rutte — who faces elections next year, and whose tough stance is good politics at home — has leaned into his bad-cop approach. Opponents note that the Netherlands has benefited enormously from being a member of the barrier-free market of the E.U., including by offering low tax rates to companies that have been lured away from the countries he now derides.
“There’s so much that Europe can do, and if it benefits from giving the appearance of being strong, united and committed, then the world is watching. Its soft power will benefit,” Balfour said.
Morris reported from Berlin.
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]]>The post Trump and GOP leaders lay out priorities for $1 trillion coronavirus relief bill appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Washington — With the coronavirus crisis worsening in more than 40 states and the District of Columbia, President Trump and Republican leaders met Monday to outline their priorities for another federal relief package that is expected to carry a price tag of at least $1 trillion.
Mr. Trump gathered in the Oval Office on Monday with Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to discuss the broad contours of a next legislative package, known as “phase 4” legislation, which they intend to discuss with GOP senators on Tuesday.
“Kids in school, jobs and health care is the theme of the proposal that we hope to come together and present to our Republicans,” McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, told reporters.
Republicans plan to push for tax credits for personal protective equipment and that incentivize businesses to bring workers back, while extending a revised version of the enhanced unemployment benefits that are set to expire this month. The proposal also includes an injection of money to states for education to ensure schools can reopen safely, Mnuchin said. The next package is expected to include liability protections for schools, universities and businesses, a top priority for McConnell.
“We don’t need an epidemic of lawsuits on the heels of the pandemic we’re already struggling with,” McConnell said.
While GOP leaders did not mention the possibility of a payroll tax cut, Mr. Trump said the issue is “very important” to him.
“We’re working on it, and I don’t think there’s too much dispute as to the level of importance,” the president said, adding that a payroll tax cut is one of roughly 10 elements being discussed for the next relief bill.
Doug Mills / Getty Images
Discussions between the Trump administration and Republican congressional leaders have been ongoing for the last two weeks. In addition to meeting with Senate Republicans on Tuesday to provide them with a full briefing on the next relief package, Mnuchin said administration officials are also going to begin reaching out to Democrats to begin negotiations.
“The focus is really about kids and jobs and vaccines,” he said, adding that the Trump administration’s goal is to have a vaccine developed for emergency use by the year’s end.
Lawmakers are returning to Washington this week after a two-week recess, and the next measure under consideration would be the fifth passed by Congress in response to the coronavirus crisis, a tally that includes a bill extending a program providing loans to small businesses. So far, lawmakers have approved more than $3 trillion in coronavirus relief through bills to provide direct payments to Americans, boost unemployment benefits and establish the small business loan program.
“We’ve spent an unprecedented amount of money,” Mnuchin said. “The good news is a lot of the $3 trillion we still have left to put in the economy and put back to work.”
In May, the Democrat-led House passed its own $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill, which provided federal aid to state and local governments, hazard pay for frontline workers, student debt forgiveness and boosted Medicaid and Medicare. The package, however, failed to gain traction in the GOP-led Senate, and the White House dismissed the measure as “unacceptable.”
While negotiations between congressional leaders and the Trump administration have yet to begin, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned in a letter to his Democratic colleagues Monday that Senate Republicans “are drafting legislation that comes up short in a number of vital areas.”
Sticking points that he cited include extending the enhanced unemployment benefits of $600 per week that were included in an earlier relief bill, as well as over federal assistance for state and local governments, investments in communities of color hit hard by the coronavirus, and hazard pay.
“Democrats will need to fight hard for these important provisions,” Schumer, a Democrat from New York, wrote.
Mnuchin said in the Oval Office the Trump administration is committed to passing legislation that protects those who are unemployed before the end of the month and said its number one issue is to craft a “technical fix” for the benefits to ensure people are not paid more to stay at home than they would receive in wages.
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]]>The post Dem leaders demand FBI briefing on ‘foreign interference campaign’ targeting lawmakers appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Though the letter did not mention the Johnson investigation, it included a classified addendum that the two sources say identified the probe as one of the sources of their concern.
“We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in their letter, which was also signed by the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.).
All four Democratic signatories are members of the Gang of Eight, a group of eight lawmakers who are briefed on classified intelligence by the executive branch.
Asked about Democrats‘ contention, Johnson, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told POLITICO: “They‘re simply wrong.“
“And Schiff is the last person to talk,“ he added.
The letter’s authors did not publicly offer additional details about the nature of the counterintelligence threat they described. But lawmakers of both parties have warned for months that foreign powers like Russia are intent on interfering in the 2020 U.S. election process — including, Democrats say, through Johnson’s investigation, which targets Biden’s son Hunter.
The probe centers on claims that a Democratic public-relations firm sought to leverage Hunter Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, to influence the State Department under the Obama administration. Johnson has asked several former State Department officials to testify, and he is eyeing subpoenas as soon as this week if they do not agree to appear for depositions voluntarily.
Johnson renewed his demand for transcribed interviews and documents from the former officials days after a Ukrainian lawmaker — Andriy Derkach, who has met with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to discuss investigating the Biden family — used a news conference to accuse the Bidens and Amos Hochstein, a former special envoy for international energy affairs at the State Department, of an elaborate conspiracy to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from Ukraine.
The last time senators were briefed on election security and foreign influence operations, Democratic lawmakers confronted Johnson behind closed doors about his investigation, arguing that it threatens the integrity of the 2020 election and relies on Russian disinformation to tar a political opponent.
They cited in particular Johnson’s initial effort to subpoena Andrii Telizhenko, who has pushed unsubstantiated claims about coordination between the Ukrainian government and the Democratic National Committee in 2016. Johnson dropped plans to subpoena Telizhenko after the FBI’s foreign influence task force briefed senators about him, focusing on concerns over his credibility.
Last week, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, renewed his request for defensive briefings from the FBI as Johnson’s investigation intensifies.
Some Senate Republicans, too, have previously signaled unease with Johnson’s investigation. In December, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who was chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, privately told Johnson that his inquiry could aid Russia, according to two congressional sources familiar with the meeting. And Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned in February that any derogatory information coming out of Ukraine about any American should be vetted by intelligence agencies because “Russia is playing us all like a fiddle.”
The Democratic leaders’ letter was dated July 13 and addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray, but they released it publicly Monday.
“Given the seriousness and specificity of these threats, as members of congressional leadership and the congressional intelligence committees we believe it is imperative that the FBI provide a classified defensive briefing to all Members of Congress and that the briefing draw on all-source intelligence information and analysis, consistent with due regard for the protection of sensitive intelligence sources and methods,” they continued.
The FBI has acknowledged receiving the letter, but the bureau declined to comment further. In their letter, the Democratic leaders demanded the briefing “prior to the August recess at the earliest possible opportunity,” and they want a schedule in place by the end of the day Monday.
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]]>The post GOP Leaders Will Meet With Trump On Stimulus Package—Here’s What We Know About It appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>TOPLINE
As Congress returned to Washington Monday facing a three-week crunch to pass the next stimulus package before they break for an August recess, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) met with President Trump to discuss the GOP’s proposed bill, slated to be released this week. Here’s what we know about the long-awaited legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (L) with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday.
Getty Images
KEY FACTS
The GOP’s proposal will include a reduction of the $600 per week federal unemployment benefits (currently slated to expire at the end of this month), according to the Washington Post—these benefits will be a major point of contention between Democrats and Republicans as negotiations begin this week.
The GOP bill is also expected to include some form of payroll tax cut, but some Republican leaders aren’t on board with that provision and Democrats are widely opposed.
A “redline” priority for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been liability protections for businesses that reopen amid the coronavirus; the proposed GOP bill will include them.
Additional aid to state and local governments—a key Democratic priority—is not likely to be included in the draft GOP legislation, according to the Post, though the proposal could ease restrictions on how states are allowed to spend CARES Act aid and may include additional money for states to reopen schools.
The Post also reports that McConnell’s draft could include at least two new tax credits for businesses.
The total cost of the Republican proposal is expected to be about $1 trillion—that’s one third of what the House Democrats proposed in the $3 trillion Heroes Act.
While Democrats have been advocating for more immediate, large-scale spending for months, Republicans led by McConnell have opted for a “wait and see” approach to the next bill, preferring to let existing federal relief spending from the CARES Act trickle down through the economy before authorizing more.
Chief Critic
In a letter to Senate Democrats on Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged his colleagues to continue to push for the party’s priorities in the next bill. “Unfortunately, by all accounts the Senate Republicans are drafting legislation that comes up short in a number of vital areas, such as extending unemployment benefits or funding for rental assistance, hazard premium pay for frontline workers, or investments in communities of color being ravaged by the virus, and many other necessary provisions. Democrats will need to fight hard for these important provisions,” he wrote.
Key background
Congress has passed four major pieces of legislation to combat the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The first two bills shored up funding for testing and small business loans, established tax credits for paid sick leave and expanded unemployment benefits. Those were followed by the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March, the largest relief bill in American history. After that, Congress passed a $484 billion “interim” bill to replenish emergency funding for small businesses after the Paycheck Protection Program, a small business rescue program established by the CARES Act, ran out of money in just two weeks due to overwhelming demand. McConnell has said the next stimulus bill Congress passes will be the last. House Democrats passed their proposal—the $3 trillion Heroes Act—in May, but Senate Republicans did not seriously consider the bill.
Further reading
Report: Trump Wants To Block Funding For Virus Testing, CDC In Next Stimulus Package (Forbes)
White House Says Discussions For Next Stimulus Bill To Start ‘In Earnest’ This Week (Forbes)
100 Republicans And Democrats Send Letter To IRS Asking For Fix To Stimulus Payment Problems (Forbes)
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]]>The post European leaders in deadlock over massive recovery fund despite marathon talks appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>French President Emmanuel Macron, center, leaves the European Council building in the early morning during an EU summit in Brussels, on July 20, 2020.
OLIVIER MATTHYS | AFP | Getty Images
European leaders are meeting for a fourth consecutive day on Monday to continue tense negotiations over a 750-billion-euro ($858 billion conversion) recovery fund.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, suggested in May tapping the markets to mitigate the economic shock from the coronavirus. However, European capitals have not agreed on how to divide the funds between grants and loans, how to link them to the EU’s democratic values, and how to oversee how the money is invested.
“Things can still fall apart,” the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, said Monday morning, referring to the tentative progress seen in the talks so far. His Austrian counterpart said on Twitter that he was “happy” with the result of Sunday’s all-nighter meeting, however.
European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs the negotiations among the 27 heads of state, is due to make a new proposal on the recovery fund and new EU budget Monday afternoon. If the latter is well-received by the 27 governments, it will be approved shortly thereafter. On the other hand, if the proposal raises further tensions, then the negotiations will continue though likely at a later date.
The biggest hurdle has proven to be the distribution of the 750 billion euros in terms of grants and loans. The original proposal, which was put forward by Germany and France in May, suggested 500 billion euros in the form of grants. However, the so-called “Frugal Four” countries (The Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Denmark) alongside Finland have asked for a much lower amount of 350 billion euros.
“400 (billion euros in grants) is now the red line for a lot of countries, primarily because otherwise it would weaken the Germany-France axis,” one official, representing a southern European nation and who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the talks, told CNBC Sunday.
The only official new proposal that was tabled over the weekend already included a cut in the level of grants to 450 billion euros.
The French president and the German chancellor have defended an “ambitious” level of grants, one EU official, who didn’t want to be named due to the sensitivity of the talks, told CNBC Monday morning.
The same official added that President Macron told the “frugal” nations that they were putting the European project at risk. A divided European response to the coronavirus crisis could spark negative market reactions.
Digital tax unlikely before 2023?
In order to repay for some of their additional debt, European countries have been asked to consider new taxes on digital companies, and on plastic waste and carbon too.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (3rd R), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (R), President of European Council Charles Michel (L) and French President Emmanuel Macron (2nd R) meet within the EU Leaders Summit in Brussels.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ahead of the start of the summit Friday, European Council President Charles Michel said: “I will propose to introduce a digital levy with the view of introducing it by the end of 2021.”
However, the only official proposal circulating in Brussels over the weekend stated: “The Commission will put forward in the first semester of 2021 proposals on a carbon border adjustment mechanism and on a digital levy with a view to their introduction at the latest by 1 January 2023.”
No bridge financing?
The recovery fund is expected to be implemented from January 2021. As a result, the European Commission was considering ways to develop some sort of bridge financing mechanism via the current EU budget to provide additional fiscal stimulus to EU nations before that date.
However, that may no longer be the case. The official proposal tabled over the weekend said: “There will be no change to the MFF 2014-2020,” in reference to the current EU budget, known formally as the multiannual financial framework (MFF).
EU leaders will reconvene at 4 p.m. Brussels time on Monday. Until an agreement is reached, all of these elements remain open to debate.
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WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 20: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) exits a Senate GOP lunch … [+] meeting in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill March 20, 2020 in Washington, DC. Lawmaker and Trump administration officials are in negotiations about the phase 3 coronavirus stimulus bill, which leaders say they hope to have passed by Monday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Getty Images
One of the big sticking points for the next stimulus bill, expected to be debated as Congress returns from recess tomorrow, centers around unemployment. Senate Republicans have hesitated on adding additional unemployment benefits, citing it disincentivizes people to work as a concern.
According to aides interviewed by the Washington Post, some of those concerns have eased as GOP leaders are discussing providing extra payments to those filing for unemployment benefits in the range of $200 and $400 a week.
That mark would fall short of the $600 a week that unemployed workers received since the passing of the CARES Act in March. But with benefits soon running out in late July, whether the payments would continue in any form has been a major point of contention between Democrats and Republicans.
The House of Representatives, in May, passed the HEROES Act, which included funds for continuing the $600 additional payments for unemployment through January 2021. Republicans, particularly Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled displeasure with the HEROES Act, which provides $3 trillion in aid. McConnell is expected to provide a plan that’s closer to $1 trillion.
One of the biggest issues in the debate for a second stimulus package has been whether to provide ongoing unemployment benefits. The GOP’s apparent easing on the subject signals not only concern for the growing rates of COVID-19 cases in the US, but also about how quickly the economy can recover, especially as some states retrench in opening up normal business operations due to the rising rates of infection.
It’s also a realization of just how powerful the initial unemployment checks were in providing a boost to the economy. JPMorgan Chase
JPM
According to the Post’s report, Republicans have also considered limiting the extra unemployment benefits for those that were high earners prior to losing their jobs.
The cost for extending a $600 a week payment to the unemployed through the end of the year was expected to run $400 billion. The revised version is expected to cost between $200 billion and $300 billion, according to those speaking with the Post.
While Senate debate will hone in on a specific number, it’s a significant victory for the over 45 million people that have filed for unemployment benefits during the pandemic, if some additional payments to the program are secured.
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