WASHINGTON — Negotiations are still going on as House Democrats and Senate Republicans try to come to a consensus on another coronavirus relief package.
The House bill is worth $3 trillion dollars and does not include any language about liability protections for businesses, schools, and healthcare providers. The Senate bill, worth $1 trillion, has extensive language about liability protections for those entities.
That and many other provisions in both bills that have nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic are a big sticking point in why Republicans and Democrats are so far apart on the issue. Braun supports the HEALS Act in the Senate and is still taking issue with the price tag of the Democrat bill, among other things.
“They want to give the American people another three-point-five trillion in debt for a bunch of extraneous stuff, unrelated,” said Indiana Sen. Mike Braun of the HEROES Act passed by House Democrats back in May.
Braun feels any relief package must include incentives for people to get back to work and for businesses to continue reopening.
“We need people to get back,” Braun said. “You do not want to have perverse incentive of encouraging people to not come back to the jobs they had before. 90-percent of people are working. Four-percent is considered full employment. So, you’ve got six-percent out there that has still be dislocated by government.”
The current unemployment rate in Indiana is 11-percent, which is right on par with the national jobless rate. Braun said it’s not the job of the federal government to replace the role of a productive economy.
