Treasury secretary says coronavirus relief before Election Day 'difficult' despite Trump's remarks

White House to continue negotiations on federal assistance

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has admitted that another coronavirus aid package is unlikely to pass before Election Day, as millions of out-of-work Americans await extended unemployment relief eight months after the onset of the pandemic and economic fallout.

"At this point getting something done before the election and executing on that would be difficult," he said at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Wednesday.

Secretary Mnuchin, acting as a go-between for the White House, has been negotiating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to agree on the terms and cost of a relief package, which House Democrats have passed against Republican opposition.

The pair have discussed relief efforts for several days and will continue this week. 

Democrats have sought a comprehensive relief package, with funding for childcare and extended unemployment insurance, rather than piecemeal efforts proposed by the White House. Speaker Pelosi’s office also has sought a framework for a national testing plan, citing health officials’ claims that a comprehensive testing strategy is essential for reopenings.

Stocks fell sharply on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 200 points, or roughly seven per cent.

Speaker Pelosi has sought a $2.2 trn relief bill and said that the White House’s latest $1.8 trn proposal is inadequate, after Donald Trump revived previously scrapped talks amid his lagging re-election bid.

Despite Democrats’ swift passage of relief packages that have been roundly dismissed by GOP leadership, the secretary believes talks are partially hamstrung by Democrats who allegedly do not want to hand the president a victory within days of Election Day on 3 November. 

“That’s definitely an issue," Secretary Mnuchin said on Wednesday. “But the president is very focused on when he wins we will need to do more. So that’s part of the reason to continue to work on this … The clock will not stop.”

On Wednesday, the president, in a Twitter post, told negotiators to “go big or go home!!!”

In remarks to economic clubs from several cities delivered from the White House Rose Garden this morning, the president said Democrats “want bail out money.”

“They don’t care about the worker,” he claimed. “They don’t care about the people.”

The president called out negotiations last week, claiming that “immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business."

He instead ordered Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to “focus full time” on confirmation hearings for his US Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, in progress this week.

During their talks on Wednesday by phone, Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnuchin “spent time seeking clarification on language, which was productive," according  to her deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill.

“One major area of disagreement continues to be that the White House lacks an understanding of the need for a national strategic testing plan,” he said on Twitter. “The Speaker believes we must reopen our economy [and] schools safely [and] soon, [and] scientists agree we must have a strategic testing plan.”

The demands for relief have been especially acute in recent months following the expiration of extended unemployment relief and inadequate state benefits while also seeing declining revenues to bolster funds without federal support.

Following the president’s initial move to cancel talks last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the nation’s economy would see “tragic” results without federal intervention.

“Too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses,” he told the National Association for Business Economics.

“Over time, household insolvencies and business bankruptcies would rise, harming the productive capacity of the economy and holding back wage growth,” he said. “By contrast, the risks of overdoing it seem, for now, to be smaller.”