Washington (AFP)

In the absence of an agreement in Congress, Donald Trump could decree temporary measures this weekend to come to the aid of the millions of Americans threatened with expulsion and stricken by unemployment because of the pandemic.

After two weeks of fruitless negotiations between the White House and the Democrats, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday he wanted to "recommend to the president that we move forward this weekend" with "certain decrees".

"This is not our first choice but people no longer have additional unemployment benefit and it is therefore a point on which we will recommend to act by decree", he continued.

The White House also intends to sign to block the "evictions of tenants" and suspend the repayment of "student loans", he listed, without specifying which decrees would be signed this weekend.

A temporary cut in wage costs should also be the subject of a decree.

"It will take a little time to finalize them and move them forward, but we will do it as quickly as possible because the president wants to act," Mnuchin continued to reporters.

Nevertheless, "the president would like us to come to an agreement" because all agree that a more sustainable and better financed plan, enshrined in law, will be "better for the Americans", he added. .

All parties also said they were ready on Friday to continue negotiations, however tense, less than three months before the presidential election.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democrat Leader Chuck "Schumer are only interested in money to save poorly run Democratic cities and states!" thundered Donald Trump after the failed negotiations.

"Nothing to do with the China Virus! (They) want a trillion dollars. No interest. We're on another path," he tweeted.

The Democrats have proposed measures to the tune of 3 trillion dollars, against 1,000 billion on the White House side.

On Friday, the opposition proposed a compromise at 2,000 billion. “Sadly, they rejected it,” Chuck Schumer said.

The decrees, "weak and insufficient", will only postpone payments and will therefore be "ineffective", he warned.

- "Losing momentum" -

"Without additional budget support, the economy as a whole risks losing momentum," analysts at Oxford Economics said.

Because the billions of dollars distributed since March have allowed companies to continue paying salaries, or households to continue to consume, preventing businesses from going out of business.

The titanic $ 2.2 trillion plan adopted at the end of March included a moratorium to prevent evictions, and $ 600 a week in aid for the unemployed, in addition to that allocated by states.

These measures came to an end at the end of July, and the unemployed must now tighten their belts. Because unemployment benefits are paid, depending on the state, for three to six months maximum, and their amount varies from 235 to 823 dollars per week.

The extension of this aid, which has prevented millions of households from falling into poverty, is not up for debate.

But its amount is one of the big points of contention: Republicans are proposing to lower it to $ 200, the White House is negotiating $ 400, and Democrats want to keep $ 600.

- Declining unemployment -

The unemployment rate continued to decline in July, to 10.2% from 11.1% in June. It is now a long way from the 14.7% in April, but still well above the 3.5% in February.

The layoffs in March and April were so massive that the jobs created since May still leave tens of millions of Americans out of work.

And the recovery of the world's largest economy, which started beating at the end of spring thanks to an easing of containment measures, took a lead in the wing in June, when the virus took off again a large part of the country.

As a result, the US economy created 1.8 million jobs in July, a very slow pace compared to the 4.8 million jobs recorded in June.

© 2020 AFP