White House Wants Stimulus by August With $1 Trillion Cap: Adviser

President Donald Trump's name is seen on a stimulus check issued by the IRS to help combat the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, in San Antonio, Texas, on April 23, 2020. (Eric Gay/AP Photo)

The White House is pushing Congress to pass another stimulus package in the first week of August before lawmakers head home for their annual summer recess, and they need to keep the bill at $1 trillion or less, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence said.

“I think we want to make sure that people that are still unemployed or hurting are protected but at the same time, we want to take into consideration the fact the economy is bouncing back and want to try to contain the amount of spending,” Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, told Bloomberg News on Tuesday.

He added, “There’s obviously been a lot of stimulus put in the system over the last couple bills, and so the price tag for us would be that.”

Later this month, Congress and White House officials are slated to hold discussions on a new stimulus package after they return from the holiday break on July 20.

Meanwhile, the House is slated to start its next recess on Aug. 3, while the Senate’s recess will start about a week later.

Short said that in that time frame, the Trump administration wants “to have a bill on the president’s desk.”

President Donald Trump and administration officials said they want a payroll tax cut, liability reform, tax incentives, and more. Trump said several weeks ago that he would prefer to see direct stimulus payments sent out to Americans, possibly more than the $1,200 checks that were sent out following the passage of the CARES Act in March.

The White House wants to achieve “the right balance between income replacement on the one hand, and ensuring that we don’t have excessively high implicit tax rates on the return to work, on the other hand,” Tyler Goodspeed, acting chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, told Bloomberg.

It comes as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that the next round of pandemic legislation may include more stimulus payments to help low-income Americans.

When he was asked about whether more direct payments would be included, the Kentucky Republican said it “could well” have them. He then said that certain people who make less than a certain amount per year have been hit the hardest by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

“I think the people who have been hit the hardest are people who make about $40,000 a year or less. Many of them work in the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry, as all of you know, just got rim-racked—hotels, restaurants—and so that could well be a part of it,” the senator told reporters.