Posted on 08/08/2020 4:04:28 AM PDT by gattaca
President Trump said Friday that he is prepared to act unilaterally to reinstate expanded unemployment benefits and suspend the payroll tax due to the coronavirus, but signaled he wouldn’t do so immediately.
Trump told reporters that his administration is working “in good faith” to reach an agreement on the next stimulus package with Democratic leaders, before lambasting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) for seeking funding for states and cities that he said have been mismanaged by Democratic politicians.
“If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need,” Trump said during a hastily scheduled news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., on Friday evening.
Trump said he is prepared to take four actions without Congress: defer the payroll tax until the end of the year; enhance unemployment benefits until the end of the year; defer student loan payments and forgive interest indefinitely; and reinstate a federal moratorium on evictions.
Asked for a timeline, Trump said he could act as soon as the end of the week. The president also insisted he has the legal authority to take the actions unilaterally, despite doubts about his ability to do so. Trump also acknowledged that the moves were likely to invite legal challenges.
“You always get sued,” Trump said. “We’ll probably get sued.”
Trump declined to say where he would get the funding for the enhanced unemployment benefits, but insisted his administration had it secured. Officials have indicated the funding could come from money already allocated by Congress in an earlier relief package that has not been used yet.
Trump also would not specify the level of payment for the boosted unemployment benefits, which were set at $600 per week as part of the relief package passed in March. The benefits officially expired one week ago, leaving millions of Americans who have lost their jobs during the pandemic without the extra assistance.
The president’s remarks came after an eleventh meeting between Trump administration negotiators and Democratic leaders ended without a deal, despite officials expressing hope they would come to an agreement by Friday.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters Friday afternoon that they would recommend Trump move forward with executive actions as soon as this weekend. The White House has been mulling unilateral action since Monday in the absence of a deal.
The White House and Democrats remain far apart on a number of critical issues, such as assistance for state and local governments. Democrats have pushed for ample support for cash-strapped state governments to prevent layoffs and cutbacks to public services.
Kudlow says he believes Trump will sign payroll tax cut order Trump to take executive action after coronavirus talks collapse Pelosi and Schumer said Friday that they offered to reduce their $3.4 trillion proposal by $1 trillion as a compromise but that the White House rebuffed their request. Mnuchin and Meadows have offered to make a short-term, smaller deal on the areas that they have found common ground, but Democrats have insisted on the need for a fulsome bill.
Meanwhile, millions of Americans remain unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced business closures and prompted massive jobs losses. The Labor Department released statistics earlier Friday showing that the U.S. economy gained 1.8 million jobs during the month of July and the unemployment rate dropped 10.2 percent.
The figures exceeded expectations, but pointed to a slowdown in the economic recovery, which economists say could be further threatened by a failure of the federal government to enact a new stimulus package.
I don’t think the feds should be giving any more money out on unemployment. That being said, this is a very smart political move by Trump. The Dems are deliberately setting up the stimulus bill to fail and then they’ll run before the cameras and say that it was the Trump and the Republicans fault for not passing an extension of unemployment. Trump targeting just this issue takes away that opportunity. If fact, if they take him to court over the matter, he will come out looking like the hero as one who wants the extension.
Politically it’s brilliant. Force Schumer and Pelosi to sue to stop people from getting the money. That will not go over well at all. And it will be nearly impossible for the enemy media to spin it.
L
Pelosti and Shoomboy thought they had all the cards. Trump just signaled no we don’t need to split our $T and your $3 T down the middle. With EOs we can get 70% of what we want and don’t have to take anything you want and we don’t. Now try negotiating, ol’ Botox Babe.
That is exactly right. This truly is the art of the deal. He has now put the Democrats in a no-win situation.
1) Cave to the GOP and make a deal much closer to what they offered which will enrage their base,
2) Make no deal and offer no resistance to Trump’s executive actions which will make them look weak and also enrage their base.
3) Make no deal and take Trump to court to stop him helping people through his executive actions, which will turn off a lot of swing voters and Midwest and other battleground Democrats.
Thanks to Cuomo and his rubber stamp legislature the unemployment rate in NYS is over 17%. In some areas of the state it’s higher, some parts way higher, than that. Some of the unemployed, especially the low-skilled/minimum wage workers won’t have jobs to go back to. In order to find work they’d have to move or train for other work. That takes money.
You’ll note that Albany isn’t offering to take their feet off our throats and open up the economy or offer people money to leave to find work.
Trump needs to do something and, unfortunately, he can’t do it to our politicians.
Yesterday’s news conference was so delayed we knew something was up.
Everyone working will save TONS on less taxes.
That would mean that people would have to work to get a benefit. Sounds good to me. I’m sick of hearing about people making more doing nothing, and then refusing to go back to work.
Best case scenario. Let them sue to take away Money from the people. Love the optics that’ll bring....and the Money is saved.
I love Trump...just when I get a bit confused and upset about his strategy, he proves again why he’s the best business man for the job...
After Obama and DACA, how can the Democrats argue that Trump can’t do this?
I see Help Wanted signs all over the place. Restaurants, light industry, distribution centers.
So how much money will I save from the taxes not being collected?
$400/weeks + $1,000+ unemployment money a month.
This lasts 26 weeks but if you go to school and take courses along the same line of work you had it will extend the unemployment checks to 50 weeks.
It includes medical insurance too.
$1,600 + $1,000 + = $2,600 + a month.
If I get fired or lose my job from a layoff, I can coast along till next year before having to draw any savings from my stock then pay taxes on that in 2022. Hmm....
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