President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would immediately sign a standalone bill providing $1,200 stimulus checks to Americans.
"If I am sent a Stand Alone Bill for Stimulus Checks ($1,200), they will go out to our great people IMMEDIATELY. I am ready to sign right now. Are you listening Nancy?" the president wrote on Twitter, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Trump issued the message hours after he ordered White House negotiators to cut off stimulus talks with the Democrats until after the election. The White House and Democrats have been negotiating for months to try to reach a compromise on a fresh stimulus bill.
“We made a very generous offer of $1.6 Trillion Dollars and, as usual, she is not negotiating in good faith," Trump wrote on Twitter. "I am rejecting their request, and looking to the future of our Country. 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."
Pelosi said in response that walking away from negotiations “demonstrates that President Trump is unwilling to crush the virus, as is required by the Heroes Act.”
“He shows his contempt for science, his disdain for our heroes—in health care, first responders, sanitation, transportation, food workers, teachers, teachers, teachers and others—and he refuses to put money in workers’ pockets, unless his name is printed on the check,” she added.
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s primary negotiator, spoke for an hour over the phone on Monday morning and planned to speak again on Tuesday, a spokesman for the speaker said on Twitter previously.
The House last week passed a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill, an updated version of the Heroes Act, but the White House signaled it was opposed to the legislation. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has said that Trump won’t sign legislation that approaches a $2 trillion threshold.
The government disbursed $300 billion in one-time checks to Americans as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act signed by Trump in March. The president has been supportive of a second round of checks for months.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany accused Pelosi of not being serious.
“If she becomes serious, then we can have a discussion here,” McEnany told reporters in Washington.
Trump’s decision to stop negotiations came after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell called for another stimulus package, cautioning that without the stimulus, the economic recovery could be weak, “creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses."
