Pelosi Says Stimulus Talks at Impasse; Trump Blames Pelosi: Report

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that talks over a new stimulus package remain at a standstill, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

• Pelosi said the Trump administration's $1.8 trillion proposal still lacks adequate funding and has no plan for national testing and contact tracing, the WSJ reported.
• Meanwhile, President Trump laid responsibility for the holdup on the House Speaker: “Republicans want to do it. We’re having a hard time with Nancy Pelosi,” the WSJ quoted the president as saying Sunday on Fox News.
• But yesterday it was reported that some in the GOP were reluctant to back the president’s proposal, instead voicing support for a much smaller package.
• In addition, the White House proposal would expand the Affordable Care Act’s provisions for people who have lost their jobs – and therefore insurance – during the pandemic. As many in the GOP have been trying to scrap the ACA, the proposal to expand it is problematic to say the least, the WSJ said.
• Why this matters in the crypto world: Bitcoin (BTC) prices have been buoyed this year as investors bet that trillions of dollars of government and central bank spending around the world in response to the coronavirus-induced slowdown will inevitably result in inflation, and therefore be positive for the cryptocurrency.
• With that in mind, should the two sides reach an agreement on a pandemic-relief package, the price of BTC could rise as a result.
• In recent trading, BTC was trading at $11,425, up 0.43% in the last 24 hours.