With the federal unemployment compensation benefit having expired last month and negotiations over a new economic rescue package having broken down, a top House Democrat is pointing fingers at the one individual responsible for preventing a deal from happening.

Democrats have been angling for an extension of the $600 per week federal unemployment compensation, another round of the one-time stimulus checks and other relief.

In the meantime, Donald Trump’s signed several orders to try to provide some relief but many experts doubt that Trump’s orders carry the appropriate authority.

“Well, I don’t know the answer to that question, but Mark Meadows may be the answer to that question. Mark Meadows was not in the first four deals that we put together,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Treasury Secretary Steven “Mnuchin, the speaker, [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer and others participated. And we got a deal on four bills to confront the crisis, to confront the economic downturn and to help families. We did that in a bipartisan way with overwhelming votes from Republicans and Democrats.

“The only thing that’s new is Mark Meadows who helped shut down the government, who opposed his own Republican speakers often and who simply does not want to get to yes. He’s got some very strong feelings about state and local governments. We think that is absolutely essential. If you let the states go down and local governments go down, the economy is going to further tank. The health care fight will be weakened. So that I think, frankly, if it were Secretary Mnuchin and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi, we’d have a deal. But I think the fact that we’re not getting together, not getting — moving forward, I think is largely the responsibility of one man, and that’s Mark Meadows,” Hoyer said of the former House member who is the new White House chief of staff. “It’s a shame because I think Secretary Mnuchin and Speaker Pelosi would, in fact, have reached a deal by this point in time. And we need to keep doing so and trying to do so. And I know, I just spoke to the speaker half an hour ago, she is ready to do that.”

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