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Political News
Senate GOP Releases Coronavirus Relief Plan With Up To $1,200 In Cash Payments To Individuals
Senate Republicans released their proposal for a third coro- navirus relief package Thurs- day as Washington pushes to try to head off economic disas- ter.
The 247-page legislation in- troduced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, expected to cost at least $1 tril- lion, includes cash payments to Americans. The measure — the final form of which will be subject to talks with Democ- rats and the White House — also includes relief for small businesses and major indus- tries hammered by the global pandemic.
The bill extends $108 billion to ailing big businesses, in- cluding airlines, loans to small businesses with less than 500 employees and the potential for student loan deferral up to three months.
Here are some of the details
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Sunday that House De- mocrats would draft their own coronavirus stimulus bill after all sides failed to reach a deal on a massive proposal being negoti- ated in the Senate.
and self-employed people could delay payroll taxes.
Up to $50 billion for air- lines, $8 billion for cargo air carriers, and $150 billion for other severely distressed busi- nesses. The government has the right to “participate in the gains” of any business it lends money to.
For two years, no executive at a company receiving a busi- ness loan making more than $425,000 in total compensa- tion can get a raise. Executives whose salary has already been determined through collective bargaining agreements may be exempt from that restriction.
Small business loans for any company with less than 500 employees. The cap of that loan is either $10 million or
the average of monthly pay- ments. Businesses use the loan to pay for payroll including paid sick leave, salaries, mort- gages, rent, utilities or other debt obligations.
Forgiveness of the parts of the loan used for payroll if companies do not fire workers before June 30.
Private health plan coverage of testing without cost-sharing and increase funding for com- munity health centers. It also aims to spur the hiring of more health care professionals to fight the pandemic.
The potential to suspend federal student loan payments for up to three months.
Not long after its release, Democrats slammed the Re- publican proposal.
of the plan, according to Sen- ate Republicans:
Cash payments of up to $1,200 would go to individu- als, with up to $2,400 for cou- ples. The sum would increase by $500 for every child. The check totals would start to phase out above $75,000 in
adjusted gross income based on 2018 tax returns. People with no federal tax liability would get only $600.
Extend the tax filing dead- line to July 15 from April 15.
The ability for corporations to delay estimated tax pay- ments until Oct. 15. Employers
Fauci On Working With Trump: 'I Can't Jump In Front Of The Microphone And Push Him Down'
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top scientific adviser to the coronavirus task force, admit- ted that he finds President Trump’s disregard of facts frustrating at times, but that to the president’s credit, “on sub- stantive issues, he does listen to what I say.”
In an interview with Science magazine’s Jon Cohen pub- lished Sunday night, Fauci was asked about some of the misinformation Trump has spread from the White House podium, often with the head of the National Institute of Al- lergy and Infectious Diseases standing by his side.
“What about the travel re- strictions?” asked Cohen. “President Trump keeps saying that the travel ban for China, which began [Feb. 2], had a big impact [on slowing the spread of the virus to the United States] and that he wishes China would have told us three to four months earlier and that they were ‘very secre- tive.’ It just doesn’t comport with facts.”
“I know, but what do you want me to do?” replied Fauci. “I mean, seriously, Jon, let’s get real, what do you want
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI
me to do?”
China initially attempted to
cover up the spread of the virus, but by Jan. 10 re- searchers there had made the sequence of the virus public. Despite receiving intelligence briefings on the dangers of the potential spread, Trump spent weeks downplaying it.
“Most everyone thinks that you’re doing a remarkable job, but you’re standing there as the representative of truth and facts, but things are being said that aren’t true and aren’t fac- tual,” said Cohen.
“The way it happened,”
Fauci explained, “is that after he made that statement [sug- gesting China could have re- vealed the discovery of the virus months earlier], I told the appropriate people, it doesn’t comport, because two or three months earlier would have been September,” before the first cases even appeared. “The next time they sit down with him and talk about what he’s going to say, they will say, by the way, ‘Mr. President, be careful about this and don’t say that.’ But I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down. OK, he said it. Let’s try and get it corrected for the next time.”
When asked about the term “Chinese virus,” which Trump uses to make a political point but many Americans consider offensive, Fauci said he would never use it; scientists refer to “the novel coronavirus.”
But Fauci said Trump does listen to him.
“To his credit, even though we disagree on some things, he listens,” said Fauci. “He goes his own way. He has his own style. But on substantive is- sues, he does listen to what I say.”
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