Senate Republicans Scrap Trump’s Payroll Tax Cut

The Washington Post reports:

Senate Republicans have cast aside one of President Trump’s key demands in their emerging coronavirus stimulus package, refusing to include a payroll tax cut in their opening offer to Democrats, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is aiming to unveil on Thursday.

Their proposal also would slash enhanced unemployment benefits for millions of workers — even as the Labor Department reported Thursday that weekly unemployment claims had risen for the first time in four months, to 1.4 million last week.

In recent days, Trump had insisted that he might not sign an eventual bill if it did not include the payroll tax cut, but the plan was extremely unpopular with Republicans.