Are the Keystone Cops running Congress?
Just about everyone in the USA understands why many Americans need an economic relief bill. Everyone, that is, except President Trump, who told us Mexico would pay for his entire border wall. Then he sent Congress (i.e., the taxpayers) the bill.
House Republicans helped to send Trump a bill that would quickly deposit up to $2,000 in stimulus checks into the hands of American families who have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, which has eliminated millions of jobs and many businesses across the country.
But Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell of Kentucky blocked consideration of the House bill that would provide economic relief payments to give the economy a major boost.
From the beginning of the legislative skirmish, Trump wasn’t a public supporter of the $900 billion stimulus bill — which would be sent in $600-per-person direct payments to qualifying taxpayers — but suddenly agreed to it Sunday, Dec. 27, and signed it into law.
There was no explanation for why Trump changed his mind on the bill he had held up for almost a week, at one point calling the legislation “a disgrace.”
Nevertheless, he signed it while he was on a weekend golfing trip in Florida after letting unemployment benefits expire for 14 million people.
Then, in a statement Trump put out later, he announced he would be returning a “redlined” version of the bill to Congress, “insisting that those funds be removed from the bill.”
Even so, with less than a month left in his presidency, insiders said his statement would more than likely be ignored by Congress.
But his statement added that there was “much more [relief] money coming, and I will never give up my fight for the American people.”
Soon after the president had signed the relief bill into law, he was attacked by Democratic lawmakers who said his delay in signing had hurt many Americans.
“The president’s pointless delay in approving the relief legislation cost millions of Americans a week’s worth of pandemic-related unemployment assistance that they desperately need,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts said.
“His stalling only intensified anxiety and hardship for workers and families who are collateral damage in his political games. Now, people will need to wait even longer for direct payments and other vital assistance to arrive,” the Democratic lawmaker said.
In the end, Congress passed a bipartisan bill that was praised by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
It was reported that Trump wanted spending cuts in the relief package, though he hadn’t raised that idea before the bill was enacted. He must have been out playing golf.
As it turned out, Congress didn’t include most of the ideas Trump wanted in the final bill. Mnuchin came up with the idea of the $600 payments, and was, in effect, its driving force.
The truth is that Trump was not a hands-on force behind the $600 checks idea.
“I understand he wants to be remembered for advocating for a big check, but the danger is he’ll be remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behavior,” Republic Sen. Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania said on “Fox News Sunday.” “So I think the best thing to do, as I said, sign this and then make the case for subsequent legislation.”
Trump’s biggest critic was Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on ABC News, who said Trump was almost “pathologically narcissistic” in his last-minute criticism of the bill.
He was right. Sending $2,000 checks to “desperate” families was one thing, but including families who were perfectly, financially comfortable sounded crazy.
That’s when Mcconnell blocked a vote on the House bill Tuesday, Dec. 29, though hinting he might hold a vote on the $2,000 check provision, but link it to provisions the Democrats could not accept.
But the idea of trying to wrap up all of the bill’s prescriptions, including fat checks for well-to-do families, into a single bill is what drove Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer over the edge.
In a statement, Schumer called Mcconnell’s proposal “a blatant attempt to deprive Americans of a $2,000 survival check.”
Meantime, a frustrated Trump had had enough of the back-and-forth argumentative debate that was getting nowhere. He sent off this blistering tweet attacking his party’s leaders:
“Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $2,000 payments ASAP,” Trump wrote. “$600 IS NOT ENOUGH!”
The Treasury Department said late Tuesday, Dec. 29, that it had begun issuing the first installment of $600 stimulus payments, adding that some Americans would be receiving them within the week.
On Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 29, a frustrated Schumer went to the Senate floor to request that the Senate take up the House-passed bill.
“The House bill is the only way to deliver these stimulus checks before the end of session. Will Senate Republicans stand against the House of Representatives, the Democratic majority in the Senate and the president of their own party to prevent these $2,000 checks from going out the door?”
Mcconnell objected, but made no further comment.
In the end, the enormity of the pandemic that is destroying millions of lives demands that the $2,000 checks be sent out as a matter of human charity and decency.