President Trump said Sunday that he would consider not signing an upcoming coronavirus relief package if it doesn’t include a payroll tax cut.
“I’ll have to see, but yeah, I would consider not signing it if we don’t have a payroll tax cut,” Trump told Fox News’s Chris Wallace in an interview that aired Sunday.
The president insisted that “a lot of Republicans” are in favor of a payroll tax holiday, though some Republicans have been cool to the proposal since Trump floated it earlier this year. Democrats have opposed the idea of a payroll tax cut.
{mosads}Trump has previously said he wants to see a payroll tax cut in the next coronavirus relief bill, and the White House suggested last week that the measure was non-negotiable.
“As he has done since the beginning of this pandemic, President Trump wants to provide relief to hardworking Americans who have been impacted by this virus and one way of doing that is with a payroll tax holiday,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement Thursday. “He’s called on Congress to pass this before and he believes it must be part of any phase four package.”
Lawmakers return to Washington this week following the July 4 recess and are expected to begin formal negotiations with the Trump administration on the next legislative package to address the impact of the coronavirus.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expected to spearhead negotiations with Capitol Hill on behalf of the White House, with help from White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Trump also said on “Fox News Sunday” that the next package needed to include liability protections for businesses that reopen, something that Senate Republicans are expected to propose.
“We do need protections because businesses are going to get sued just because somebody walked in. You don’t know where this virus comes from. They’ll sit down at a restaurant. They’ll sue the restaurant, the guy’s out of business,” Trump told Wallace, “So, we do need some kind of immunity.”