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Democrats, Trump officials set to resume stimulus talks today

Top White House officials and Democrats are set to continue stimulus deal discussions today. Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi, Alexis Christoforous, and Jessica Smith discuss what to expect.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Meantime, top White House officials and top Democrats are set to meet again today in hopes of coming up with a stimulus deal. Both sides reporting some progress in Monday's talks but no grand bargain just yet. Our DC correspondent Jessica Smith is here now. So, Jess, I guess just give us a status report. Where do things stand right now?

JESSICA SMITH: Well, as you mentioned, negotiators are going to meet again today. We did hear from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Pelosi yesterday, and they said that the meeting with White House officials was productive. They said that they are making some progress, it seemed. They said they were getting an understanding of each side's position.

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So that's a little more positive than what we've heard over the past week or so. They said that they went through the specific numbers that each side wanted. But still when reporters asked them if there had been any progress made on unemployment insurance, the leaders said they're sticking to their position. We're sticking to ours.

We also heard from President Trump. He said there were very good discussions happening with Pelosi and Schumer, but he also floated the idea of taking care of some of the issues that he's concerned about with executive orders. Now, it's not exactly clear how much the president could actually do here, but, again, he has floated the idea of addressing some of these issues on his own, things like the payroll-tax cut, deferring those taxes, and the eviction moratorium. But again, we'll see if negotiators can make any progress as they meet again today.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Could it be, Jessica, that lawmakers take their recess in August and we don't have a deal until September, which of course means millions of people not getting those enhanced unemployment benefits?

JESSICA SMITH: Well, the House has said that they are not going to leave until there is an agreement. I don't see the Senate leaving without an agreement either. So lawmakers say that they're going to have to get this done. It's just been difficult here for them to break through this stalemate that they've been having over these issues.

So we'll see if they make any more progress this week. But again, they're saying that they will stay in DC until there's a deal.