Trump Sows Chaos With New Demands on Covid Relief

 

Trump Sows Chaos With New Demands on Covid Relief

President Trump on Tuesday night abruptly threw the $900 billion Covid relief package approved by Congress into chaos, calling the bill that his administration helped craft a "disgrace" and demanding changes to the hard-fought deal, including an increase in direct payments from $600 to $2,000 per person.

In a video posted to Twitter, Trump complained that the stimulus checks included in the relief package were "ridiculously low" and criticized a litany of other provisions in the massive legislative package passed this week, seeming to confuse the Covid relief deal and the $1.4 trillion catchall spending bill it was paired with to ease passage.

"It’s called the Covid relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with Covid," Trump said in his video, complaining about various appropriations he termed wasteful. "Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it," he said.

A last-minute muddle: As The Washington Post noted: "Virtually all of the complaints Trump made in the four-minute video — including foreign aid agreements, aid to the Kennedy Center, fish management language and more — are not part of the $900 billion covid relief agreement but rather included in other, separately negotiated parts of the legislation, including a $1.4 trillion omnibus appropriations bill and a measure authorizing $9.9 billion in water projects." And CNN reports that many of the items Trump objected to also appeared in his own budget proposal.

The president was largely absent from the congressional negotiations toward a coronavirus relief deal in recent weeks, focusing instead on baseless and unsuccessful claims that he lost the election because of widespread fraud. Trump had reportedly complained to aides last week that the $600 checks should be bigger, but was convinced — temporarily, it now seems — to not push the issue for fear of derailing the ongoing talks.

Trump’s comments reportedly blindsided some White House and congressional aides and left others in the administration embarrassed.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had represented the administration in talks — and, as The Washington Post points out, the $600 checks were his idea. "In a meeting with congressional leaders on Dec. 15, Mrs. Pelosi repeatedly asked Mr. Mnuchin what Mr. Trump’s position was on the direct payments, but he declined to answer," The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the meeting.

In a statement released earlier on Tuesday, Mnuchin said he was pleased that the Covid relief package had passed "an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis" and thanked Trump and congressional leaders for their work "to provide critical additional economic relief for American workers, families, and businesses." He added: "We are fully committed to ensuring that hardworking Americans get this vital support as quickly as possible and to further strengthening our economic recovery."

Making them squirm: As Washington scrambled to make sense of Trump’s surprise announcement, some suggested that he was responding to conservative backlash against the bill. "Current and former administration officials speculated on Tuesday evening that Mr. Trump did not like the narrative that he had been sidelined from the negotiations and that calling for higher direct payments was a political move to please his base," The New York Times reported.

One unnamed aide told The Wall Street Journal that Trump’s move was an effort to make Congress squirm. If so, Republicans are likely to be the ones feeling most uncomfortable. "This is what happens with a president who places more trust in conservative fever swamp Twitter than his own Treasury Secretary. His administration helped negotiate this bill, and he just pulled down the pants of every Republican who voted for it," Brendan Buck, who served as a top aide to former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) told the Post.

Some "insiders" reportedly suggested that may have been Trump’s goal, with the president intentionally punishing members of his own party because he felt angry and betrayed that GOP leaders had accepted the outcome of the election.

Democrats, on the other hand, eagerly took Trump up on his demand, with party leaders and members voicing support for the larger checks, seizing the opportunity to ratchet up pressure on congressional Republicans, most of whom oppose the additional spending and sought to limit the size of the aid package to less than $1 trillion. Upping the payments to $2,000 per adult would add some $370 billion to the cost of the package, according to an estimate by economist Ernie Tedeschi, putting it well above the GOP’s ceiling.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded to the president’s Twitter post with one of her own: "Republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the President wanted for direct checks. At last, the President has agreed to $2,000 — Democrats are ready to bring this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!"

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized Republicans for previously blocking larger stimulus checks and pressed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to go along this time, tweeting: "I’m in. Whaddya say, Mitch? Let’s not get bogged down with ideological offsets and unrelated items and just DO THIS! The American people deserve it."

What’s next: No one knows at this point. "No one on either side of Pennsylvania Avenue appears to know what Trump’s plan is — or even if there is one," Politico reported.

How Trump’s challenge plays out in the coming days will determine whether coronavirus relief is delayed and the government shuts down.

Pelosi is set to stage a vote of support for the $2,000 payments by unanimous consent Thursday, but any Democratic effort to amend the relief package or approve payments isn’t likely to succeed.

In a letter to colleagues on Wednesday, the speaker said that bringing up a standalone bill to increase the direct payments would require the agreement of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). "If the President truly wants to join us in $2,000 payments, he should call upon Leader McCarthy to agree to our Unanimous Consent request," she wrote. Any House member could also block the bill from advancing by denying unanimous consent. It’s not clear that the Senate would take up the measure either, and Senate Republicans are unlikely to approve the larger payments.

It’s worth noting, though, that Trump did not explicitly threaten to veto the Covid relief and spending package.

"I am also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a Covid relief package, and maybe that administration will be me," he said.

Having expressed his displeasure with the stimulus checks and made his point to his base and voters who he might court in another presidential campaign, Trump could still relent and sign the package. "Two people close to the president said the president is unlikely to actually veto the bill and cause a government shutdown because he doesn’t want to delay funding for distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, which he considers one of his biggest achievements," Politico reported.

If Trump does veto the bill, or refuses to sign it, the government could shut down on December 29, when a stopgap funding measure expires, and emergency benefits provided by an earlier relief package, including an eviction moratorium and extended unemployment insurance, would expire by the end of the month.

Congress could still avert a shutdown by approving another stopgap funding bill, but averting additional economic pain would be harder.

The latest relief bill passed with a veto-proof majority in both houses of Congress, but with the 116th Congress ending in just days, there’s a chance that Trump could prevent it from being enacted via a "pocket veto" — not signing it before the 117th Congress begins on January 3.

The new Congress would then have to pass the package again. In the meantime, millions of jobless workers would see a lapse in benefits, and the expiration of emergency unemployment programs could push nearly 5 million people into poverty virtually overnight, according to an estimate from researchers at Columbia University cited by The New York Times.

Trump on Wednesday left Washington, D.C., for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he reportedly plans to stay through the new year.

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Trump Vetoes $741 Billion Defense Bill

President Trump on Wednesday carried through on his threat to veto the $741 billion National Defense Authorization Act, setting up what is expected to be the first veto override during his administration.

Both the House and the Senate passed the bill earlier this month with veto-proof majorities, and Congress has already made plans for a post-Christmas session during which lawmakers plan to override the veto. Congress will have until noon on January 3 to do so.

In his statement announcing the veto, Trump charged that the bill is "a ‘gift’ to China and Russia." Boasting that "No one has worked harder, or approved more money for the military, than I have," the president recited a series of complaints about the bill, including its failure to repeal legal protections for tech firms, its establishment of a process for removing the names of Confederate leaders from U.S. military bases and its restrictions on the executive’s ability to bring troops home from overseas.

"For all of these reasons, I cannot support this bill," Trump said. "My Administration has taken strong actions to help keep our Nation safe and support our service members. I will not approve this bill, which would put the interests of the Washington, D.C. establishment over those of the American people."

Congress reacts: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) said Wednesday he was confident the bill would become law. "The FY21 NDAA passed with overwhelming, veto-proof support in both the House and Senate, and I remain confident that Congress will override this harmful veto," Smith said in a statement.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was more pointed in his criticism, invoking the military pay raise included in the bill. "Donald Trump just vetoed a pay raise for our troops so he can defend dead Confederate traitors," Schumer tweeted. "Democrats will vote to override it."

Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, one of Trump’s most loyal Republican allies, released a statement praising the president while calling for passage of the bill. Inhofe did not mention that Trump had in fact vetoed the bill and was the only impediment to passing the bill into law.

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Economy Losing Momentum as Year Ends

As Washington teeters on the edge of chaos, the U.S. economy continues to send signals that it needs help, with more than 1 million people filing new jobless claims last week.

About 869,000 people filed for unemployment benefits in state programs last week, the Labor Department said Wednesday, while another 398,000 applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the temporary federal program that provides benefits for self-employed and gig workers — and that is scheduled to expire in a matter of days if the $900 billion relief package passed by Congress fails to become law.

The numbers show a modest decrease on a week-over-week basis but remain at exceptionally high levels. "The economy is still pretty soft," Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James Financial, told Bloomberg. "The level of jobless claims suggests there’s still labor-market weakness."

Incomes and spending drop: Total personal income fell by 1.1% in November, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced Wednesday, marking the second month in a row with a decline. Spending fell, as well, with personal consumption expenditures decreasing by $63.3 billion, or 0.4%.

"The income and spending data was just the latest evidence that after rapid gains in the spring and summer, the recovery has stalled and could be going into reverse," wrote Ben Casselman of The New York Times. Brown of Raymond James said the data show "the pandemic’s impact on the season: There’s less seasonal shopping than usual, there’s less seasonal travel."

Dione Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, said the coronavirus is still calling the shots in the economy. "We are losing momentum at a critical time," she told Bloomberg. "Consumer spending is pulling back or slowing down at a time when we should be ramping up, and that’s because of the surge in Covid cases."

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