In a telling interview, Senator Patrick Toomey Jr, a United States Senator from Pennsylvania, and member of the Congressional Oversight Commission tasked with monitoring the implementation of the CARES Act revealed things we haven’t heard from other officials:

1 – it will be a week or two for the bill to get passed
2 – Republicans are deeply divided about the priorities in the HEALS Act
3 – Speak Pelosi will ‘get her pound of flesh’ (Republicans are prepared for this)
4 – Why this is a ‘different kind of negotiation’
5 – The growing debt = $3 trillion in CARES act and $3 trillion in lending (the US GDP is $20 trillion)
6 – A telling sign = $1 trillion is on the table, another $1 trillion will ‘probably get in’
7 – Emphasis on ‘liability protection’
8 – Problems with direct payments (vast majority of them went to people who didn’t have lost income)
9 – State level problems

(Original link to the interview on CNBC is available in the description section below)

Here are some things where Democrats and Republics are far apart:

– Unemployment insurance benefit
– State & local aid
– Hazard pay for essential workers
– Money for the USPS
– Expansion of food stamps
– $100 billion aid for renters

In other important news:

U.S. consumer confidence for July misses expectations
Fed extends its lending programs to December 31 (scheduled to expire at the end of September)
Bill Gates: Pandemic testing is a ‘waste’ unless results are available within 48 hours