President Donald Trump on Tuesday abruptly called for the end of stimulus talks between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Trump administration, instructing Senate Republicans to focus their time towards confirming the White House's new Supreme Court nominee and Congress to pass further aid outside of the latest proposal.
"I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after i win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business," Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon, the day after he was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to continue his COVID-19 treatment at the White House.
The House of Representatives's new modified HEROES Act had called for more than $2 trillion in coronavirus relief aid, with highlights including another round of direct payments to Americans and $25 billion in aid for the commercial airline sector. Passed last week by the House, the proposal was being discussed by Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for a few days as the two worked to resolve differences over different aspects of the bill like additional unemployment insurance and state and local government relief aid.
Trump's call to end these negotiations come with some confusion, for a few days earlier, Trump had called for Congress to pass the fifth major coronavirus relief bill to follow the more than $3 trillion signed into law to earlier this year.
"OUR GREAT USA WANTS & NEEDS STIMULUS. WORK TOGETHER AND GET IT DONE," Trump tweeted on Saturday.
In ending stimulus talks, Trump has called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to "focus full time" on approving Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Yet, later on Tuesday, Trump appeared to contradicted his call to end stimulus talks until after the November presidential election. In a later Twitter reply, Trump responded to a CNBC headline where Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell called for more fiscal stimulus, saying Congress has a low risk of 'overdoing it,' with Trump writing "True!"
The CNBC article covered Powell's remarks made on Tuesday to the National Association for Business Economics, where Powell called for more stimulus to help the virus-stricken economy recover.
Powell stated that while some progress has been made in areas like job creation, goods consumption and business formation, this is not the time for Congressional lawmakers to relax. Lack of further stimulus could "lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses," and could ultimately harm all the progress that has been made so far.
"Even if policy actions ultimately prove to be greater than needed, they will not go to waste," Powell added. "The recovery will be stronger and move faster if monetary policy and fiscal policy continue to work side by side to provide support to the economy until it is clearly out of the woods."
Many areas of the U.S. economy have recovered faster than most economists had expected. That recovery was largely due to the swift approval of the $2 trillion CARES Act stimulus package that helped provide aid to Americans struggling amid the initial blow of the pandemic as well as funds to small businesses and airlines.
But recovery has recently slowed in multiple areas, like the job market, consumer entertainment, and travel and leisure sectors. Without more stimulus, growth may slow even more significantly in many areas of the economy throughout the rest of the year.
For now, more stimulus seems to still be on the table. Trump tweeted late on Tuesday that Congress should approval more aid for airlines and the Paycheck Protection Program for small business, as well as more direct payments to the public separate from the House's HEROES Act proposal.