Washington – White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond said Sunday that President Biden is prepared to sit down with a group of Republican senators who request a meeting with the president to discuss a dual coronavirus emergency relief bill.
“The president said in his inaugural address that he wants to work with both sides to help the American people,” Richmond said in an interview with Face the Nation. What we know about President Biden is that it is never about him, but always about the people. So yes, he is very willing to meet with anyone to advance the agenda. ‘
A group of ten Republican senators sent a letter to Mr. Biden sent to ask to meet with him to discuss a dual coronavirus relief framework, the details of which will be announced Monday. The plan, according to senators, includes $ 160 billion for the development and distribution of vaccines, testing and contact detection, and the manufacture of personal protective equipment. It also includes $ 4 billion for health care and drug abuse services, as well as targeted economic assistance to unemployed Americans and another round of direct payments to individuals earning up to $ 50,000 annually.
The president presented his own sweeps $ 1.9 billion relief package, which is the White House’s highest legislative priority. But with the Senate evenly divided between parties, ten Republicans will have to join Democrats to support the measure so that it can pass through the regular legislative process. GOP senators are at the cost of mr. Biden’s plan, as well as the inclusion of provisions such as a federal minimum wage increase to $ 15 per hour.
Democratic leaders in Congress are taking the first steps this week to pursue a maneuver called budget reconciliation, which is the plan of Mr. Praying will succeed without Republican support.
Richmond said the president’s proposal includes provisions that include support from most Americans, including $ 1,400 direct payments to individuals, aid to small businesses and money to reopen schools.
“This is about the seriousness of the goal, it’s about meeting the moment, and this crisis is enormous and our response to it meets the challenge,” he said. “If you start talking about $ 1,400 to individuals, another $ 160 million, so that we can safely open schools, a few hundred million dollars to make sure we help small businesses that are struggling, that’s what the American people want to see. “
Richmond would not say whether Mr. Biden would be willing to drop measures from his package, such as an increase in the minimum wage, and to hold independent votes on the terms, saying ‘we are not going to negotiate on TV.’ But he noted that the federal minimum wage has been raised in crises in the past under both the Republican and Democratic governments.
“Other people want to argue the process. We want to argue the goal of moving this country forward,” he said. “And President Biden is very clear and he said this during his inauguration: we are facing deep challenges and we are going to face the moment and we are not going to leave anyone behind.”
Prior to joining the White House, Richmond was a Louisiana congressman and on January 6, he was one of the lawmakers in the U.S. Capitol during the violent riots by a pro-Trump mob. In the wake of the assault on the Capitol, lawmakers were given the green light to use their congressional grants for additional security measures. House President Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that ‘the enemy is inside the House of Representatives’, a reference to some Republicans who have expressed a desire to bring guns to the House floor or have tried to do so.
About his time in Congress, Richmond said he believes the political landscape has changed.
“I believe we are in a different state than we have ever been before, members who do not want to face reality, members who encourage conspiracy theories and things like that,” he said. “But the real thing, the enemy inside, is the dysfunction of the Republican Party, unwilling to face facts and not want to put the people of America first.”
Richmond said the challenge facing Congress was ‘bringing people together’.
“This means that Republicans will have to make the divisions they have defined over the past few years disappear under the former president and come to the table,” he said. ‘All we’re asking for is the people out there holding their backs to keep food on their table and keeping a roof over their heads and clothes on their child’s backs. Come help us. And let’s the conspiracy theories. stop arguing about election fraud that we know never existed. And so it is the enemy within the inability of people to acknowledge facts and come together to help the American people. “