After five weeks of staying silent on coronavirus relief since lame duck president Donald Trump lost the November election, the White House is suddenly proposing a greatly reduced aid package that will be dead on arrival in both the Senate and the House, the Washington Post reports.

At one point prior to the election, Trump promised that he would pass a coronavirus relief package that was more than expensive than what the Democrats were offering.  “Go big or go home!” Trump tweeted on October 13th, in obvious election year pandering.

The new proposal from the White House would cut the federal unemployment subsidy fund from the $180 billion in a bipartisan Senate plan to just $40 billion.  It would include a $600 per person one-time stimulus check, along with an allotment for $600 per child.  This is less than the $1,200 check supported by Democrats and many Republicans.

“The bipartisan talks are the best hope for a bipartisan solution,” A joint statement from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said. “The President’s proposal starts by cutting the unemployment insurance proposal being discussed by bipartisan Members of the House and Senate from $180 billion to $40 billion. That is unacceptable.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell does not support the $1,200 stimulus check, feeling that the newly-reborn “fiscal conservatives” in his caucus.  During the Trump administration, few if any Congressional republicans complained about excessive deficits, but with a Democratic president taking office January 20th, the members of the former Tea Party caucus have apparently embraced whining about spending again.