The president and speaker have each been questioning each other’s mental faculties. Pelosi said last week that Trump was “in an altered state right now,” and she suggested to colleagues that his thinking might be affected by the steroids he was given as treatment for Covid-19.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the president’s latest $1.8 trillion offer for a stimulus package is “a very big deal,” and, like Trump, blamed Pelosi. Asked at a new conference if he thought there will be a stimulus before the election, McCarthy wasn’t optimistic.
“As long as Nancy Pelosi is involved, the answer is easily no,” McCarthy said. “She is the only hurdle, the only roadblock for us to be able to vote on something.”
Meanwhile, the economy continues to show evidence of the impact of a withdrawal of past fiscal stimulus -- just as anticipated by Federal Reserve policy makers and private economists alike.
Applications for U.S. state unemployment benefits unexpectedly jumped last week to the highest since August, a report showed Thursday. Initial jobless claims in regular state programs totaled 898,000 in the week ended Oct. 10, exceeding all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey, Labor Department data showed Thursday.
Trump said Thursday that he did still think a stimulus deal is possible before Nov. 3 -- “because I think there’s a lot of pressure on Pelosi.”
Trump’s own undermining of his team, by endorsing a bigger package than they have fought for -- and that Senate Republicans oppose -- has encouraged the Democrats to hold out.
“Pelosi suggests that she has the leverage in negotiations with Mnuchin since President Trump seems anxious for a big pre-election deal,” said Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “The closer to the election a deal might be reached, the better for Democrats and the worse for Trump.”
-With assistance from Mario Parker and Saleha Mohsin.
This article is provided by Bloomberg News.