Pelosi: ‘I would rather a deal’ than legislation
Yahoo Finance’s Jess Smith joins The Final Round panel to break down the latest on coronavirus aid as the Democrats prepare another $2.4 trillion dollar proposal and investors wonder if there will be another package before the November election.
Video Transcript
SEANA SMITH: Well, I want to bring up one of the big reasons that we're seeing some of those gains today. And investor sentiment getting a little bit of a boost after we heard from house Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying that a last minute deal, a stimulus deal still is on the table. Jess Smith is in DC with the latest on the talks for us. Jess?
JESS SMITH: Yeah. In a couple of interviews, house Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she talked to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin yesterday. She had plans to talk to him again today. She says she's hopeful they can find a way to agree on a stimulus deal before the election.
She still says though that the White House needs to offer more money. Right now, Democrats are saying that they'd accept somewhere between the $2.2 to $2.4 trillion range. That's well below their $3.4 trillion initial offer, but it's still far more than what Republicans have been wanting to accept. So really, the two sides are still very far apart here, but at least it looks like they are speaking.
Pelosi said on Sunday that Democrats would be making a new proffer in negotiations sometime soon. We know that they have been working on another piece of legislation. She said that if there is no deal, they could vote on that legislation sometime. And so we'll be keeping an eye on that to see if we have any updates on her conversations with Mnuchin or when we might see this latest offer from Democrats.
- Hey, Jess. I have a question about this. The sort of time frame here is, will this happen by Election Day on November 3rd or not? Let's say it doesn't. Do you think then it becomes more likely they could get this done after the election during a lame duck session when neither side needs to posture the way it does going into the election itself?
JESS SMITH: I think it might be easier to get done at that point. And I think right now everyone is focused on the election and also the Supreme Court fight that we're about to see.
I've heard arguments both ways when it comes to that particular argument that the Supreme Court nomination is just going to suck up all the oxygen and no one is going to be able to focus on anything else. But then I've also heard some people say, well, maybe, because they'll be so focused on the Supreme Court nomination, that Mnuchin can kind of go talk to Pelosi and get it done while it's not the focus. I've heard both of those arguments there. So we'll see what actually happens. And I do think, after the election, pretty much everyone thinks that maybe it would be easier, because you don't have that pressure going into the November election.
SEANA SMITH: Well, we will see. All right. Jess Smith, thanks for bringing us the latest.
