“I’d like to be doing it with the support of Republicans. I’ve met with Republicans. There’s some really fine people who want to get something done, but they’re just not willing to go as far as I think we have to go,” Biden said, adding, “What Republicans have proposed is to either do nothing, or not enough. All of a sudden, many of them have rediscovered fiscal restraint or concerns for the deficit. Don’t kid yourself: This approach will come with a cost. More pain for more people for longer than it has to be.

“The way I see it the biggest risk is not going too big, it’s if we go too small,” Biden continued. “We’ve been here before. When this nation hit the Great Recession that Barack and I inherited in 2009, I was asked to lead the effort on the economic recovery act to get it passed. It was a big recovery package, roughly $800 billion. I did everything I could to get it passed, including getting three Republicans to change their votes and vote for it. But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t quite big enough; it stemmed the crisis but the recovery could have been faster and even bigger. Today we need an answer that meets the challenge of this crisis, not one that falls short.”

On Friday morning, Politico reported that the White House had bristled at an op-ed written by former Treasury Secretary and Obama economic adviser Larry Summers, who advocated for a smaller stimulus package in 2009. Summers wrote in the Washington Post Thursday that there was a danger in going too big with the next relief bill, but Jared Bernstein, a member of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, said on CNN Friday morning that Summers was “wrong in a pretty profound way” and disputed the op-ed during Friday’s White House press briefing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked about the op-ed following a meeting between Biden and House Democrats, to which she replied, “We didn’t talk about Larry Summers.”

One issue still being worked out is who will be eligible for the next round of stimulus checks. In packages passed by Congress under Trump, full payments went to any American who made under $75,000 on their most recent tax return, but there have been discussions to lower that threshold to $50,000 in order to reduce the total cost of Biden’s plan. House Majority Whip James Clyburn said Friday following the meeting with Biden that they were making sure there was no “dialing back” on the $1,400 stimulus payments but that limiting recipients was being discussed.

“I’m also getting a little bit of pushback from people to make sure we target what we’re doing and we’re all for that,” Clyburn said. “We believe it should go to the people who need it most. We are there; we just can’t get it reported that we are there.”

Many have raised concerns that targeting payments based on 2019 income tax records could hurt Americans who’ve lost their jobs since the last filing. A spokesperson for the Senate Finance Committee told Yahoo News that eligibility would depend on the timing of the final vote and each individual’s tax filing, saying, “If you file your taxes by the time a relief bill is passed, the IRS would use your 2020 income — not your 2019 income — when sending relief payments.”

On Friday, a bipartisan proposal from two House members was put forward to maintain the income thresholds at $75,000 per American. Biden reiterated the check amount would not decrease, noting during his address, “I’m not cutting the size of the checks. They’re going to be $1,400. Period.”