Trump orders jobless assistance, tax delay
President calls on states to help pay for $400 weekly benefit
He moved to bypass lawmakers to defer payroll taxes and extend unemployment benefits.
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Seizing the power of his podium and his pen, President Donald Trump on Saturday moved to bypass the nation's elected lawmakers as he claimed the authority to defer payroll taxes and extend an expired unemployment benefit after negotiations with Congress on a new coronavirus rescue package collapsed.
At his private country club, Trump signed four executive orders to act where Congress hasn't, contending Washington's gridlock had compelled him to act as the pandemic undermined the country's economy and imperiled his November reelection hopes.
Trump moved to continue paying a supplemental federal unemployment benefit for millions of Americans out of work during the outbreak. However, his order called for up to $400 payments — one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving. Congress allowed those higher payments to lapse on Aug. 1, and negotiations to extend them have been mired in partisan gridlock, with the White House and Democrats far apart.
Trump largely stayed on the sidelines during the administration's negotiations with congressional leaders, leaving the talks on his side to chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Trump's embrace of executive cutive actions to sidestep Congress runs in sharp con-trast to his criticism of former President Barack Obama's use of executive orders on a more limited basis. And the president's step-back from talks with Congress breaks with his self-assured negotiating skills.
Trump sought to play the role of savior with the $400 weekly assistance as well as a deferral of payroll tax and federal student loan pay-ments and the continuation of a freeze on some evic-tions during the crisis. "It's $400 a week, and we're doing it without the Democrats," Trump said, asking states to cover 25% of the cost Trump is seek-ing to set aside $44 billion in previously approved disas-ter aid to help states main-tain supplemental pan-demic jobless benefits, but Trump said it would be up to states to determine how much, if any of it to fund, so the benefits could be smaller.
Many states have been facing budget shortfalls due to the coronavirus pan-demic and would have diffi-culty assuming the new obligation. The previous unemployment benefit was filly funded by Washing-ton.
The president said at his club Friday night that "if Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need."
Democrats had said they would lower their spending demands from $3.4 trillion to $2 trillion but said the White House needed to increase their offer. Repub-licans have proposed a $1 trillion plan.
Trump said Saturday the orders "will take care of pretty much this entire situation, as we know it" But they are far smaller in scope than congressional legislation, and even aides acknowledged they didn't meet the needs of all that was required.
Trump said the employ-ee portion of the payroll tax would be deferred from Aug 1 through the end of the year The move would not directly aid unem-ployed workers, who do not pay the tax when they are jobless, and employees will need to repay the federal government eventually without an act of Congress, where there is bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill.
In essence, the deferral is an interest-free loan that would have to be repaid. Trump said he'll try to get lawmakers to extend it, and the timing would line up with a post-election lameduck session in which Congress will try to pass government funding bills.
“If I win, I may extend and terminate,” Trump said, repeating a longtime goal but remaining silent on how he'd fund the Medicare and Social Security benefits that the 7% tax on employee income covers. Employers also pay 7.65% of their payrolls into the funds.
“This fake tax cut would also be a big shock to workers who thought they were getting a tax cut when it was only a delay,” said Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. “These workers would be hit with much bigger payments down the road.”
Both the House and Senate have left Washington, with members sent home on instructions to be ready to return for a vote on an agreement. With no deal in sight, their absence raised the possibility of a prolonged stalemate that stretches well into August and even September.
Often an impasse in Washington is of little consequence for the public — but not so this time. It would mean more hardship for millions of people who are losing enhanced jobless benefits and further damage for an economy pummeled by the still-raging coronavirus.
The monthly jobs report for July, released Friday, showed 1.8 million jobs were added, but the unemployment rate is 10.2%. Meanwhile, the U.S. is on the verge of passing 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 with more than 162,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.