Mnuchin Says He’ll Listen ‘Any Time’ Democrats Have Proposal

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he’d listen to any proposal offered by Democrats on coronavirus relief, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hopes negotiations with the White House resume soon.

Neither gave a firm date, though, for talks to restart during interviews on Sunday political talk shows, a day after President Donald Trump took executive actions on relief to work around the Congressional impasse.

“We have to come to an agreement. We have to meet half-way,” Pelosi said on “Fox News Sunday.” Separately, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” she said that “of course there’s room for compromise.”

Democrats and Republicans are trillions of dollars apart on overall spending and on key issues, including on aid to state and local governments and the amount of supplementary unemployment benefits.

On Fox, Mnuchin chided Democrats for their intransigence over weeks of talks, particularly on state and local government funding, which some Republicans have termed a bailout for Democratic states. He urged Pelosi to help pass a bill on “things we agree on” before returning to some of the most contentious issues.

“On almost every other single issue we’ve reached an agreement,” Mnuchin said. “Any time they have a new proposal, I’m willing to listen.”

Trump’s actions on Saturday related to expanded unemployment benefits to jobless Americans at $400 a week; a temporary payroll tax deferral for certain workers; eviction protection; and student-loan relief.

Those moves were “unworkable, weak and far too narrow,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Democrats and some Republicans — notably, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska — have termed Trump’s actions unconstitutional. Pelosi and Schumer stopped short of saying that Democrats would attempt to stop them in court.

“Whether they are legal or not, it takes time to figure out,” Pelosi said on CNN. “Right now we want to address the needs of the American people.”

Some economists have said, by acting unilaterally, Trump could get lawmakers back to the table.

“If these policies are indeed implemented, this suggests that they might force Congress to act by then to avoid further disruptions,” economists at Goldman Sachs said in a research note on Saturday.

— With assistance by Tony Czuczka

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