The outgoing president of the United States, Donald Trump, this Saturday urged Congress to approve a new package of measures to stimulate the “big and focused” economy, to contain the crisis caused by the pandemic of the covid-19.
“Congress should now make a covid relief bill. It needs the support of Democrats. Make it big and focused. Do it,” reads a post on Donald Trump’s official Twitter account.
The agency EFE points out that these are Trump’s first words in relation to the talks for the approval of a new stimulus package, since a week ago the projections of the main North American media gave the winner of the presidential elections of 3 November Democrat Joe Biden.
Donald Trump has not yet acknowledged the defeat and denounced, without evidence, that there was fraud.
Before the elections, the now outgoing president has called on several occasions to reach an agreement with Democrats in Congress to define a new plan to rescue the economy, after having approved last March the largest in the history of the United States, worth $ 2.2 billion.
The negotiations had been going on for months, but stopped before the presidential elections and have not yet resumed.
According to local media, if they resume, it will be the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who also did not recognize Joe Biden’s victory, leading the negotiations, putting the White House in the background.
Request for stimulus worth 500 billion
Republicans are advocating the approval of a limited bailout, similar to the $ 500 billion stimulus plan, presented by conservatives and which was blocked in September and October by Democrats in the Senate.
The Republicans’ proposal includes financing for small businesses and public health, but does not include funds for local governments or direct deposits to citizens, such as the bailout approved in March.
Democrats, for their part, advocate a larger aid package that included new unemployment benefits, a second round of direct payments to citizens and assistance to state and local governments, among others.
The United States is the country with the most deaths (244 346) and also with the most confirmed cases of covid-19 infection (more than 10.7 million).
Measures to combat the pandemic have paralyzed entire sectors of the world economy and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the pandemic will reverse the progress made since the 1990s, in terms of poverty, and increase inequality.
The IMF expects the world economy to decline by 4.4% in 2020, with a contraction of 4.3% in the United States and 5.3% in Japan, while China is expected to grow 1.9%.
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