US President Donald Trump confirmed that there are "good chances" to reach an agreement with Democrats in Congress on a new package to stimulate the American economy, which is suffering under the weight of the repercussions of Covid-19, in a fundamental shift from His position earlier this week.
His remarks on Thursday contradicted his surprise decision Tuesday to suspend negotiations with Democrats in Congress until after the November 3 presidential elections.
Negotiations have been going on for weeks between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin, hoping to reach a massive economic stimulus package. But Trump ordered Mnuchin to stop the talks, accusing Pelosi of not negotiating in good faith.
But the president backed down on Thursday, telling "Fox Business", "We are starting to have very fruitful talks," referring to proposals related to helping airlines and providing checks of $ 1,200 each for laid-off workers.
"We are talking about an agreement that bypasses airlines," he said, adding, "I think we have a really good opportunity to do something."
But the Director of the White House Office of Strategic Communications, Elisa Farah, said later that the Trump administration still preferred a "small package" over a larger one, adding that loans and grants for small businesses were top priorities.
Her comments contradicted what Mnuchin said during his talks with Pelosi on Thursday afternoon, according to her staff.
"Their conversation focused on determining if there is a possibility of an imminent agreement on a comprehensive bill," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hamill said on Twitter. "The secretary made clear the president´s interest in reaching such an agreement."
This was the latest turnaround in a week that witnessed many fluctuations in this file.
The sudden suspension of negotiations sparked criticism from bipartisan and business circles while causing stock markets to plummet, prompting the president to change his stance and call on Congress to pass a separate law "immediately" to aid airlines, small businesses and workers.
But Pelosi indicated that such a law would not be passed in Congress unless an agreement is reached to pass a broader stimulus package.
She told reporters on Thursday, "I was very open about developing a separate bill for airlines or being part of a larger bill. But a separate bill will not be passed without a broader law."
The new measures are related to the "Cares" law, which was approved in March when the epidemic struck and the period of application of some of its provisions expired. Cares has allocated $ 2.2 trillion to alleviate the economic recession caused by Covid-19, and economists believe that it played a key role in mitigating the damage to the largest economic power in the world.
Pelosi acknowledged that the two parties have agreed in certain areas, but the Republicans "have turned their backs on the full package."
Trump called for separate measures worth $ 25 billion to alleviate the crisis plaguing airlines and allocate $ 135 billion to small businesses.
The Democrats noted that Republicans last week blocked a separate bill from being passed to avoid layoffs for a large number of airline employees.
Airlines are a major concern for MPs as they face a significant drop in travel demand due to Covid-19. It has received billions of dollars in aid under the CARES Act this year in exchange for its abstaining from layoffs until October.
But the additional aid that was pinned on them did not come. United Airlines (United Airlines) and American Airlines announced last week that they would lay off 13 to 19 thousand employees.
Trump lowered his tone in his speech with "Fox Business" Thursday, saying that the failure of the talks "is not anyone´s fault."
"It looked like it was in front of a dead end so I hung it up. Then we resumed (talks) and I see the markets are doing well," he said.
Economists point out that the approval of a new government subsidy package is very important to prevent a wave of layoffs or company declarations bankruptcy and to support the unemployed.
The Labor Department announced that 840,000 new applications for unemployment benefits were registered last week, while more than 25.2 million people in the United States received some form of government aid as of September 19.
