Prez delivers COVID relief plan by exec order
Signs tax-cut, unemployment orders
President Trump signed four executive orders Saturday to provide emergency economic coronavirus relief to all Americans.
One of the orders creates a “payroll tax holiday” until the end of 2020 for Americans making less than $100,000 a year.
Trump also floated the possibility of permanently eliminating the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) tax — the Social Security and Medicare payments deducted directly from paychecks — if he is elected to a second term.
He also enacted student-debt relief for many federal loans, continuing a halt on monthly payments and interest until the end of the year.
A third order extended a moratorium on evictions for homeowners with federally backed mortgages.
Most critically, Trump extended federal unemployment payments to families struggling with COVID-19related job losses.
The prior $600-a-week payment, however, was cut to $400. Trump said the amount was lowered to ensure the cash didn’t act as a “disincentive” for getting back to work.
The moves, which he announced at his Bedminster, NJ, golf club Saturday, bypass Congress, where Democratic leaders and White House officials have been at a legislative impasse.
“We have repeatedly stated our willingness to immediately sign legislation providing expanded unemployment benefits, protecting families from eviction and providing relief payment to families,” he said of negotiations with Congress.
“Democrats have refused these offers. What they really want is bailout money for Democrat governors and mayors that have been run very, very badly for many years.”
Trump also accused Democrats of scuttling negotiations by insisting on measures unrelated to their COVID-19 relief proposals, including “the mass release of inmates, including serious felons,” and stimulus checks to illegal immigrants.
“They have things in there nobody has had the time to look at or read. These people, I honestly don’t believe they love our country,” he said, singling out Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif ).
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had been negotiating with Schumer and Pelosi.
Democrats have pushed for a $3 trillion relief package, while Trump and his allies have tried to keep the cost to $1 trillion.
It is unclear if the president can unilaterally authorize the payments, because the power of the purse is granted to Congress by the Constitution.
Trump faced multiple questions from reporters about the threat of litigation tying up the desperately needed aid. He said he was unbothered.
“Congress has obstructed,” he said. “This will go very rapidly through the courts. If we get sued, it’s somebody that doesn’t want people to get money, and that’s not a very popular thing.”