#Sen. McConnell to introduce major cut to unemployment benefit

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
ZUMAPRESS.com

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will propose cutting the additional unemployment benefit payments from $600 to $200 when Republicans unveil their coronavirus relief bill on Monday afternoon, according to one source familiar with the plan.

The White House and GOP reportedly coalesced on the figure after days of negotiations as McConnell (R. KY) tries to cap a fourth wave of stimulus spending to around $1 trillion.

Republicans are eager to slash the $600 extra being paid to 25 million Americans who have lost their jobs amid the pandemic, arguing the federal bonus disincentives people from returning to work since many were getting more in unemployment and supplement that they had been getting paid.

The weekly jobless benefit expires in a few days and lawmakers as well as officials in the White House are eager to pass another relief package to help the flailing US economy.

But Republicans want to reduce unemployment benefits and use them as a bridge until states can begin paying the unemployed around 70 percent of the income they received before they lost their jobs.

Democrats are far apart — pushing to extend the current $600 rate until January, arguing that the federal bonus introduced has prevented a full-scale recession.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D. NY) called on McConnell to continue the $600 payments during a press conference on Sunday.

“Unemployment insurance has expired. Over 1.7 million New York depends on unemployment insurance through no fault of their own,” he said.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said the unemployment benefit introduced at the peak of the crisis in May was going to continue.

“The original unemployment benefits actually paid people to stay home and actually a lot of people got more money staying at home than they would going back to work,” Meadows told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

“So the president has been very clear, our Republican Senators have been very clear, we’re not going to extend that provision,” he said.