White House pushes Senate GOP to include $600 stimulus payment in relief package
Source: Washington Post
White House officials are asking Senate Republican leadership to include stimulus checks worth $600 in the emergency economic relief package currently being debated in Congress, according to two people granted anonymity to share details of private deliberations.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not include a second round of stimulus payments in the relief proposal he released last week. Senior Republican leadership in Congress are listening to White House officials push for the inclusion of the stimulus checks, the two people said, a provision also broadly supported by congressional Democrats.
President Trump has privately indicated a willingness to send another round of stimulus checks of as much as $2,000, according to one person in direct communication with the president. Congress in March approved a round of $1,200 stimulus checks that the Treasury Department disbursed to more than 100 million American families in a matter of weeks.
A second round of stimulus checks was left out of the $908 billion bipartisan framework unveiled last week by a group of moderate Senators hoping to break the months-long impasse over stimulus negotiations. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have been pushing for the checks to be included in the final package, with Sanders going as far as saying he will vote against the relief legislation unless they are approved. Trump’s name was printed on the first round of stimulus checks sent over the spring and summer.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/12/08/stimulus-checks-economic-relief-package/
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59 next month, but am thankfully retired from the federal government. And I get your issue - my BIL went through the same when he was laid off as a sales rep after 20 years at the same place and was a few years younger than 59 at the time. It became a series of odds and ends jobs since (must be close to 7 years now) before he had to eventually go on SS Disability with a tiny pension that was part of his severance (he is on dialysis 3x a week). But he will be eligible for that to convert to full SS soon. As much as people talk about "ageism", it is a reality and not considered a "protected class". 
