MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) US President Joe Biden held a lengthy meeting with 10 Senate Republicans on Monday to discuss the size of a proposed COVID-19 economic relief package, with both sides failing to come to an agreement on the amount that should be allocated to prop up the country's economy, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion economic package that would include $1,400 stimulus checks for citizens. In response, Republican senators have called for reducing the plan to just $600 billion.
"He [Biden] felt it was, you know, an effort to engage, and engage on a bipartisan basis, and that's why he invited them to the White House today. But his view is that the size of the package needs to be commensurate with the crisis � crises we're facing � the dual crises we're facing, hence why he proposed a package that's $1.9 trillion," Psaki said at a White House press briefing.
In a later statement, Psaki noted that the president would "not slow down work" on the economic stimulus package in order to receive votes from the Republicans in Congress. The Democrats currently hold a majority in both the House and the Senate.
Those who oppose Biden's stimulus package have welcomed new figures published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Monday. The CBO predicts that US GDP will grow 4.6 percent this year, after a 3.5 percent drop in 2020, even without a new bailout program.
