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What is $2.2T Covid-19 relief? Here's what package offers as Internet says ‘Get GOP come to table with Dems’

The package has kept $436 billion to provide one year’s worth of assistance to state, local, territorial and tribal governments who urgently need funds to pay frontline workers who keep society safe

US Secretary of Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, and the GOP are reportedly open for talks on the Democrats’ new $2.2 trillion Covid-19 package. This comes after the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday, September 27, that a deal can be reached with the White House on the pandemic relief package and that talks were continuing. “We are having our conversations. And when I have a conversation with the administration, it is in good faith,” Pelosi said on CNN. “I trust (Treasury) Secretary (Steve) Mnuchin to represent something that can reach a solution. And I believe we can come to an agreement.”

Pelosi also called the package as an effort to work with Republicans in the time of crises. "Democrats are making good on our promise to compromise with this updated bill, which is necessary to address the immediate health and economic crisis facing America's working families right now," Pelosi said in a letter to House Democrats. "We have been able to make critical additions and reduce the cost of the bill by shortening the time covered for now."

The $2.2 trillion package includes a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks, $600 in extra unemployment, and $225billion for schools. This package shows a cutback from the earlier $3.4 billion bill that passed the House of Democrats in May but was declined by Senate Republicans. However, the current package remains well above what the Senate Republicans had been willing to accept which was a $650 billion to $1 trillion range pandemic relief package.

What the $2.2 trillion package offers

The package offers a second stimulus check. It calls for a proposal for another round of direct payments to Americans that amounts to $1,200 for qualifying taxpayers and $500 per dependent.The package also provides for extra federal unemployment benefits keeping in mind the joblessness factor. Under this, the package would restore the $600 federal unemployment booster that expired at the end of July in 2020. It would further continue the extra federal payments until the end of January 2021. This would provide a “vital safety net for the record number of Americans who are unemployed, including those connected to the gig-economy”, as per the summary released by House Democrats.

The package has kept an amount of $436 billion to provide one year’s worth of assistance to state, local, territorial and tribal governments who urgently need funds to pay frontline workers like first responders and health workers who keep the society safe amidst such crises but are in danger of losing their jobs. The package vouches to support small businesses hit hard by the pandemic. It will help them by improving the Paycheck Protection Program and by providing them with loans, and delivering targeted assistance for the struggling restaurant industry and independent live venue operators.

In the package, funds are also devoted to augmenting education and child care. The package offers $225 billion for education and $57 billion to support child care for families. Additional items in the relief package include funding for election security, the US Postal Service, worker safety, food security, Covid-19 testing, treatment, and helping airline industry workers. After it is announced that the talks are going on $2.2 trillion package, the Internet had its own views. Some lauded the offerings of the package while others wanted GOP to quickly arrive on the table with Democrats. A user was thankful for the relief package on Covid-19. “I say, thank you so much! Because the stimulus package is a great help for people that right now have unemployment, and lot jobs now is out for the COVID 19. I know that President Trump is making great work!”

Some lashed out at President Donald Trump’s tax fraud saying that if he would have paid his taxes then the current Covid-19 proposed package would not have been slashed. “If Donald Trump paid his taxes the second stimulus package could’ve been paid for! The GOP graveled over $600 for people who are unemployed and lost their jobs, essential workers, and families affected by Covid.” Some wanted US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to urge GOP leaders to agree on the package. “Get your GOP side to come to the table with Dems on a stimulus package or we will remember in November. You need to stop screwing around with our lives!”