- Biden said he would support the provision of a stimulus check to individuals who earn up to $ 75,000 a year.
- This is when more Democrats criticize efforts to tighten income limits, including freshman Democratic senators from Georgia.
- Biden suggested that he is still in touch with Senate Republicans as committees begin efforts to draft legislation this week.
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President Joe Biden supported Tuesday’s initial House Democrats legislation that would maintain the $ 75,000 annual income limit for stimulus checks, after proposals to reduce it sparked opposition from many Democrats.
Biden met with several business leaders in the Oval Office to discuss his $ 1.9 trillion emergency spending package and continue to gather support for him. Early research indicates that it is popular with a large majority of the American public.
The meeting included business executives like JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon; Doug McMillion, CEO of Walmart; Sonia Syngal, CEO of GAP; and Tom Donahue of the Chamber of Commerce. Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also attended.
The president opened the meeting by indicating that the White House was exchanging documents with Senate Republicans and trying to determine areas of common ground between them. He then answered questions about former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial and the eligibility test when negotiations began in earnest.
He responded with a simple “yes” when asked by reporters about how to maintain stimulus check limits at existing levels. White House press secretary Jen Psaki also indicated on Tuesday that the White House supports the measure.
The comments were made at a time when House Democrats rejected efforts to tighten income limits for a new wave of stimulus checks. Some center Democrats have suggested a plan to tighten the limits, but this has prompted protests from lawmakers like Senator Bernie Sanders and also from freshman Democratic senators from Georgia who campaigned to send $ 2,000 checks.
House Democrats released the initial legislation Monday night that would send checks for $ 1,400 to individuals who earn up to $ 75,000 and couples who earn up to $ 150,000. These are the same parameters that the president set out last month in his rescue package.
However, payments would be limited to a lower limit for people with higher incomes to restrict who can receive a direct payment. The House Democrats’ plan would phase them out for singles who earn over $ 100,000 and couples who earn over $ 200,000.
Biden’s plan includes $ 1,400 stimulus checks, $ 400 federal unemployment benefits through September, a larger child tax credit and assistance to state and local governments, among other provisions. The House’s Democratic version of the plan would cut a month’s increase in unemployment insurance.
The committees will spend the next two weeks correcting the legislation, so further changes are still possible before the final bill reaches the floor. Democrats are using the reconciliation process, a move that allows legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes instead of the 60 generally required to avoid an obstruction.
A group of 10 Senate Republicans led by Senator Susan Collins of Maine presented a $ 618 billion measure earlier this month. Democrats criticized it because they argued that it would provide little federal assistance. Still, the group sent a letter to the White House on Thursday saying they were “committed to working in a bipartisan way”.
Asked about the state of bipartisan relief talks on Tuesday, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, one of the group’s Republicans, told Insider that “we are exchanging letters”. He did not specify further and his office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republicans are vehemently opposed to the aid package, arguing that it is a large amount of undirected spending. Congressman Kevin Brady, the Republican graduate of the House Means and Resources Committee, criticized Democratic efforts to bypass Republicans in alleviating the pandemic.
“Our focus should be to crush the virus and rebuild our economy,” said Brady in a statement. “Unfortunately, the bill introduced at this late hour does not fit in with that effort and Democrats are insisting on moving forward with a nearly $ 2 trillion bill without a two-party commitment.”
Republicans also used the process to bypass Democrats. In 2017, Brady chaired the committee that helped pass the Republican Party’s tax law without any Democratic support.