Biden is meeting GOP senators who want a stimulus bill with $1,000 checks instead of $1,400, but is poised to press ahead with his larger plan

• President Biden is meeting GOP senators Monday, hoping for wider support for his $1.9 trillion relief plan. 
• The group of 10 lawmakers back a $600 billion package, with $1,000 relief checks instead $1,400. 
• Reports suggest that Democrats are likely to push on with their full package. 
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President Joe Biden will on Monday meet a group of Republican senators in a bid to secure bipartisan backing for his COVID-19 relief bill.

The meeting was announced on Biden’s daily schedule, after the group of ten senators, led by Susan Collins of Maine, said they support a new stimulus package but want to spend far less than he does.

They claim their package could attract bipartisan support. It is worth $600 billion, about a third of the sum Biden wants to inject into the US economy.

It takes a different approach to direct payment checks for Americans, arguing for a new round of $1,000 payments, less than the $1,400 Biden wants. The senators also want those checks to be more targeted.

In a statement Sunday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced the meeting, and said that it was imperative a comprehensive deal is passed quickly. 

“As leading economists have said, the danger now is not in doing too much: it is in doing too little. Americans of both parties are looking to their leaders to meet the moment,” she said.

—This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 31, 2021

As part of Biden’s pledge to rebuild unity and bipartisan consensus in Washington DC, the White House reached out to moderate Republicans to secure bipartisan backing for a relief bill.

But Republicans have balked at the price tag, claiming it’s too high. 

Although seeking GOP votes, Democrats are also moving to push the plan in its current form without their support if Republican backing isn’t forthcoming. 

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is laying the ground for the bill to pass under the budget reconciliation rule, which requires only a simple majority to pass the Senate, and could be enacted by Democrats alone.

Schumer told The New York Times in an article published Sunday that it was vital to avoid being too restrained, which he said was the mistake the Obama administration made in response to the 2008 financial crisis.

“The dangers of undershooting our response are far greater than overshooting,” Schumer told the Times.

“We should have learned the lesson of 2008 and 2009, when Congress was too timid and constrained in its response to the financial crisis.”

With Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaker vote in a 50-50 split, this approach would require the support Democratic moderates such as Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has been critical of some of the measures in the bill. 

Supporters of the larger bailout package, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, say it’s more important to get a comprehensive bill through quickly than it is to build bipartisan consensus. 

“We all look forward to working with Republicans. But right now, this country faces an unprecedented set of crises,” Sanders said in an interview on NBC’s “This Week” on Sunday. 

“We have got to act and we have to act now.”