政府官员和民主党国会领导人之间关于冠状病毒救助的对话可能很快就会破裂，两党都在周四晚上离开国会大厦，声称在关键问题上“分歧很大”。
现在，随着自行设定的周五协议最后期限的临近，两党之间的谈判似乎处于崩溃的边缘。
财政部长史蒂夫姆努钦说:“美国公众希望采取行动，所以再次重申，如果我们不能达成协议，我们不会每天都回来。”“我们已经说过，到本周末，我们希望就主要问题达成一致。”
但是达成一致似乎并不容易。周四晚上的谈判以众议院议长南希·佩洛西称政府的提议是“苏菲的选择”而告终。
佩洛西和参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默认为，共和党人采取的“瘦身”措施不足以解决大流行的广泛问题。
佩洛西说:“当他们说一个瘦的提议，这是厌食症。”
白宫办公厅主任马克·梅多斯说，唐纳德·特朗普总统在会议期间给他打了三次电话。梅多斯说，尽管总统继续倡导国会解决方案，但他现在正在认真考虑他能做些什么。
梅多斯说:“如果不能达成协议，他准备自己采取行动。”特朗普也同样嘲笑这样的命令可能会落空。
周四，当被问及一项可能的行政命令时，特朗普说“可能是明天下午”或第二天早上，不过他确实指出，国会达成协议还有时间。
参议员约翰·肯尼迪说他支持执行行动。
他说:“如果国会不做它的工作，那么我认为总统需要采取行动。”
但一些成员对这一举措的合法性表示不安。目前还不清楚总统是否会从其他地方转移未使用的资金，这总会让本应控制财政大权的国会感到些许心痛。
得克萨斯州共和党参议员约翰·科宁告诉记者，“我不知道他的权威是什么，甚至不知道他能做什么，但他们显然在关注这一点。”
尽管如此，当参议员们在八月的某个时候离开时，沮丧情绪在国会山全面爆发。参议院没有正式休会，但是议员们被告知，如果能够达成协议，他们将在24小时内接到通知，返回国会就协议进行投票。
参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔说:“参议院不会在8月份休会，除非民主党证明他们永远不会让协议成为现实。”共和党参议员周四指责佩洛西和舒默造成了持续的僵局。
“如果有理由留下来，我不会有任何问题。但是议长佩洛西和参议员舒默必须给我们留下的理由，我确信他们不想这样做。为什么?我不知道，”肯尼迪说。
临近的2020年选举也让一些共和党人猜测民主党人的动机。
佛罗里达州参议员马可·卢比奥(marco rubio)警告说，“只要他们认为他们在政治上什么也不做更好，我们就很难向前推进，这似乎就是他们的想法。”
当参议院争论不休的时候，依赖上一个救济法案所创造的利益的美国人面临着失去援助。600美元的失业救济金和暂停驱逐令已经到期。本周标志着申请薪水保护计划的时期的结束，这是缅因州参议员苏珊·柯林斯支持的一项倡议。
柯林斯对周四谈判的时间损失表示遗憾，但对达成协议抱有希望。
“我很担心会花这么长时间，在我看来，本周应该达成协议，但显然没有。嗯，我不知道，”柯林斯参议员说。“目前还很难预测什么时候，但我仍然认为周末会有结果，下周我们会回来投票。”
不过，双方似乎仍相距几光年。民主党人认为需要一个强有力的法案来解决由流感大流行引起的一连串的经济和健康压力。
舒默说:“特朗普政府和参议院共和党人严重损害了美国的政治、经济和医疗，我们认为病人需要大手术，而共和党人只想用创可贴。”
一位民主党人在今年秋天可能是最艰难的连任竞选中，来自阿拉巴马州的参议员道格·琼斯抨击共和党人，他们拒绝谈判几个月，而他们却在确定前一批联邦紧急流行病开支的有效性，他们说，“他们把你推到了墙上，然后说这是你的错。...也许我们应该改变传统。我的意思是这是一个荒谬的方式来管理这个国家-在威胁之下。”
此外，一些共和党人表示，他们对民主党领导人和政府之间的任何协议都持高度怀疑态度，一些人计划投票反对任何协议——另一些人则表示，他们只是不确定大多数共和党人最终会支持这样的协议，这是麦康奈尔预测的。
参议员迈克布劳恩，r-ind:“将有一个共和党分裂可能从喜欢的内容，但不是价格标签，你会看到一系列不同的共和党投票。”，告诉记者。“我想我的预测是它会通过——我想如果白宫支持它的话。...我会看一下内容，但我猜最上面的一行可能会让我很难投赞成票。”
麦康奈尔在接受cnbc采访时表示,“我不打算猜测时机，但我想让美国人民放心的是，民主党和共和党都希望看到结果——至少是大多数共和党人，而不是每一个共和党人——因为在我们接种疫苗之前，经济确实需要额外的刺激。我不能告诉你交易的具体时间，但我认为在不久的将来，它会成为现实。”
周四早些时候，当被问及民主党是否会改变立场，支持短期延长一些已经到期的项目时，比如扩大联邦大流行失业福利，即上周结束的每周600美元的薪水，佩洛西斩钉截铁地说:“我们不会有短期延长。”
Negotiations on brink of collapse with no clear path forward on coronavirus relief
Conversations between administration officials and Democratic congressional leaders aboutcoronavirusreliefmay soon fall apart, with both parties leaving the Capitol on Thursday evening claiming to be "very far apart"on key issues.
Now, as the clock ticks down on the self-imposed Friday deadline for an agreement,negotiations betweenthe two parties appear to be on the brink of collapse.
"The American public wants action, so again, we're not going to just keep on coming back every day if we can't get to a deal," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said. "We've said by the end of the week we wanted to reach an agreement on the major issues."
But agreement does not appear within close reach. Thursday evening's negotiations ended with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling the administration's offer a "Sophie's choice."
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have argued that the "slimmed down" approach taken by Republicans does not do enough to address the widespread issues of the pandemic.
"When they said a skinny proposal, it was anorexic," Pelosi said.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said that President Donald Trump called him three different times during the meeting. While the president continues to advocate for a congressional solution, he is now seriously considering what he can do, Meadows said.
"He is prepared to take executive action on his own," if an agreement is not reached Meadows said.
And Trump similarly teased that such an order could be coming down the pike.
"Probably tomorrow afternoon" or the next morning, Trump said Thursday, when asked about a possible executive order, though he did note that there was still time for a congressional agreement to come to fruition.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he backs executive action.
"If Congress isn't going to do its job, then I think the president needs to act," he said
But some members expressed unease at the legality of such a move. It's unclear if the president would be moving unspent money from other locations, and that always causes Congress -- which is supposed to control the purse strings -- a bit of heart burn.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters, "I don't know what his authority would be or even what he could do but, they're clearly looking at that."
Still, frustration fully set in on Capitol Hill Thursday as senators headed off on something of an August recess. The Senate did not formally adjourn, but members have been told they'll get a 24-hour notice to return to the Capitol for a vote on a deal if one can be reached.
"The Senate won't adjourn for August unless and until the Democrats demonstrate they will never let an agreement materialize," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
Republican Senators on Thursday blamed Pelosi and Schumer for the ongoing stalemate.
"I have no problem staying if there's a reason to stay. But Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Schumer have to give us a reason to stay, and I'm convinced they don't want to do that. Why? I don't know," said Kennedy.
The approaching 2020 election has also led some Republicans to speculate about Democrats' motivation.
Sen.Marco Rubio, R-Fla., warned, "As long as they calculate that they're better off politically doing nothing, it's going to be hard for us to move forward and that's the calculation they've made, it appears."
While the Senate squabbles, Americans who depend on the benefits created by the last relief bill face losing assistance. The $600 unemployment benefit and moratorium on evictions has already expired. And this week marks the end of the period to apply for the paycheck protection program, an initiative which Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, championed.
Collins lamented the time lost on negotiations on Thursday, but held out hope of a deal.
"I'm very concerned that it's taking so long, and it seems to me that there should have been a deal this week but obviously there wasn't. Um, I don't know," said Sen. Collins. "At this point it's hard to predict when, but I still think it's going to come together over the weekend, and we'll be back voting on it next week."
The two sides appear to still be light years apart though. Democrats have argued a robust bill is needed to address the litany of economic and health stressors caused by the pandemic.
"The Trump administration and Senate Republicans have badly mauled the body politic, the American economy and American health care and we believe the patient needs a major operation while Republicans want to apply just a Band-Aid," Schumer said.
One Democrat in perhaps the toughest reelection this fall, Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, laid into Republicans who refused to negotiate for several months while they determined the effectiveness of the previous tranche of federal emergency pandemic spending, saying, "They push you up against the wall and then say its your fault. ... Maybe we should change tradition. I mean that's an absurd way to run this country -- under threats."
Moreover, a number of Republicans said they're highly skeptical of any deal between Democratic leaders and the administration, some planning to vote against whatever comes out -- others saying they're just not sure a majority of the GOP conference would support such an agreement in the end, something that McConnell has forecasted.
"There will be a Republican split anywhere from liking maybe the content but not the price tag, and you'll see a broad array of different Republican votes," Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., told reporters. "I'm guessing it'll pass would be my prediction -- I think if the White House gets behind it. ... I'm gonna be looking at the content, but I'm guessing the top line will probably make it hard for me to vote for it."
For his part, McConnell sought to reassure the country that a deal would eventually make it across the finish line, saying in a CNBC interview, "I'm not going to speculate about the timing, but what I do want to reassure the American people is that there is a desire on the part of both the Democrats and the Republicans -- at least most of the Republicans, not every single one -- that want an outcome, because the economy does need an additional boost until we get the vaccine. Exactly when a deal comes together, I couldn't tell you, but I think it will at some point in the near future."
Asked earlier Thursday if Democrats might change their position and support a short-term extension of some expired programs, like the expanded federal pandemic unemployment benefits -- that $600 per week paycheck that ended last weekend, Pelosi minced no words, saying, "We're not having a short term extension."
