Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is pouring cold water on the idea of a quick deal on a fourth coronavirus relief package, calling a laundry list of ideas floated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “premature.”
“She needs to stand down on the notion that we’re going to go along with taking advantage of the crisis to do things that are unrelated to the crisis,” McConnell told The Washington Post.
McConnell added that “what’s really happening here is, she’s looking for a way to jam us.”
McConnell’s comments come as Pelosi has quickly pivoted to brainstorming a fourth coronavirus bill less than a week after Congress passed the roughly $2.2 trillion stimulus bill. Pelosi, in a statement to the newspaper, argued that she hoped leadership in both chambers could work together, but that victims of the virus “cannot wait.”
Some of the ideas Pelosi floated, including a massive infrastructure plan and reversing the 2017 tax law’s $10,000 cap on the state and local tax (SALT), have been panned by McConnell.
Lawmakers in both parties and the administration have talked for years about doing a massive infrastructure package, and President Trump renewed his call for it this week.
But McConnell told The Post that the sticking point remained the same: How to pay for such a bill.
“There is a reality of how you pay for it. We just passed a $2 trillion bill, and it would take a lot of convincing to convince me that we should do transportation in a way that’s not credibly paid for after what we just passed last week,” he said.
McConnell has also knocked the idea of rolling back part of the 2017 tax law, accusing Pelosi on Wednesday of trying to “push unrelated pet priorities.”
“Last week: Carbon regulations. Now? A tax giveaway for wealthy people in blue states, panned by economists across the spectrum. This is a crisis. Let’s act like it,” he tweeted.
Pelosi spokesman Henry Connelly said in a statement to The Hill that “action on SALT would be tailored to focus the benefits on middle class earners and include limitations on the high-end.”
The GOP leader hasn’t ruled out a fourth bill, but he and several members of his caucus have signaled that they want to wait to see what impact the third bill has before deciding what additional legislation from Congress might be needed. The Senate is currently out of town until April 20.
“I think we need to wait a few days here, a few weeks, and see how things are working out,” McConnell told “The Hugh Hewitt Show” on Tuesday.