Posted on 10/07/2020 6:52:02 AM PDT by Kaslin
What makes Trump look worse before the election: trying to get a deal with no success, or pointing out that the other side doesnt want a deal for political reasons and pulling out of talks?
President Trump announced on Twitter that he was shutting down stimulus talks with Democrats until after the election because they were not negotiating in good faith. Pelosi is asking for $2.4 Trillion Dollars to bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States, money that is in no way related to COVID-19, wrote Trump.
The president continued: Immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business. Instead, Trump is asking Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to focus on the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court nomination in the month before the election.
The criticism started immediately. Corporate media scoffed that now it would look like the lack of a stimulus was all Trumps fault. Conservatives, especially of the nationalist conservative variety, were quick to criticize Trump for not making a deal with Democrats and for hinting at fiscal conservatism. The key theme was that Trump ending talks with Pelosi would cost him the election.
The criticism is wrongheaded, and a classic example of D.C.-think versus what works in the real world. The disagreement between the White House and House Democrats has little to do with fiscal conservatism (which has been dead in D.C. since the halcyon 1950s) or the total dollar amount of proposed spending, and much more to do with what the money does or doesnt do.
Of course, the situation is fluid and Trump could reverse course within the weekits a classic Trump move to end talks only to restart them again. But as of now shutting down talks is the right move and wont cost Trump the election.
If I am sent a Stand Alone Bill for Stimulus Checks ($1,200), they will go out to our great people IMMEDIATELY. I am ready to sign right now. Are you listening Nancy? @MarkMeadows @senatemajldr @kevinomccarthy @SpeakerPelosi @SenSchumer
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020
Thats because the Democrats really have been negotiating in bad faith. Pelosis asks are intended to be unacceptable to Republicans, and when Republicans have moved to compromise, House Democrats have several times moved the goalposts.
Pelosi never planned on getting a stimulus passed unless she extracted a massive pound of flesh. Why would she give a win to Trump before the election? Shes operating on the conventional D.C. wisdom that one kind of stimulus helps Trump so shes been pushing a stimulus that would hurt Trump if passed. Just consider what a Pelosi is asking for.
First, House Democrats want nearly $1 trillion for state and local governments. At most, state and local governments have a $250 billion budget shortfall. Republicans have offered an amount equal to the actual budget shortfall, and some GOP senators have offered moreespecially if the money gets kids back in school so parents can work. But Pelosi roundly rejected these offers. The biggest beneficiary of the proposed $1 trillion for states like California, New York, and Illinois would be public-sector unionsslush funds for the Democratic Party.
More state employees mean more dues paid to these unions and more money to the Democrat Party. States with massive pension liabilities, run up by leftist politicians giving handouts to the public-sector unions in exchange for votes and donations, could be wiped away at the federal taxpayers expense. People can complain about fiscal conservatism, but it isnt good politics to give the opposing party $1 trillion, and little of this money would end up in the hands of actual working people.
Second, another divide involves Democrats wish to have the $600 in enhanced unemployment benefits continued, with retroactive benefits paid after the end of July. The problem here is that a person had to make roughly more than $60,000 per year from work to make work pay better than receiving the enhanced unemployment, which tweaked the rules to make it incredibly easy for those not even searching for work to receive the benefit.
The White House was offering $400 in an enhanced benefit. The way the math works, the lower the enhanced benefit goes, the lower the annual income threshold is for unemployment benefits to pay more than work.
Pelosis reasoning has nothing to do with Democrats love for welfare it is completely political. The $600 enhanced benefit, were it continued back in July as certain all-knowing pundits wanted, would have kept the unemployment rate artificially high after the shutdowns. Even if people feel momentarily cash-rich, a high unemployment rate that is not moving lower is not conducive to an incumbent presidents reelection. Pelosi is smart and knows this. The White House knows this too.
Not only that, consider that outside of D.C., especially in rural areas, $60,000 per year is a middle-class income. The median is where most Americans are at. $60,000 is above the median individual income and just below the median household income. Anyone who thinks that the optics of paying people $60,000 annually not to work while others make less and work their tails off will fly in Middle America should quit politics. Even the White Houses final proposal of $400 in enhanced benefits hoping to make a deal with Democrats was too high.
Finally, Democrats had all sorts of other untenable asks. Remember the freakout over Post Office funding that became a media narrative when it was useful and has since disappeared from the ether? Thats because Democrats were pushing a stimulus bill that would aid mail-in voting which means that un-postmarked ballots without a witness signature and sometimes collected by third-parties can come in days after the election in swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Republicans were never going to agree to all these demands. Senate Republicans ended up offering more postal funding, but the Democrats soon moved to another demand and the supposed urgent need for postal funding disappeared from the narrative.
To sum it all up, Pelosi offered Trump a deal. The deal was a crap sandwich, and she refused to budge even while Republicans tried to meet in the middle. No deal is absolutely better than a bad deal, both politically, and for the economy. The author identifies as a nationalist conservative and thats why he believes useless spending really does matter because the data shows it especially hurts working Americans.
The question then was what the president would do. As a non-politician, who actually doesnt spend all day on Twitter or worrying about what the media will say, Trump knows that in the real world it is far better to walk away and take the issue to the voters than to continue meaningless talks that make it look like all parties involved cant get it done.
If the deal wasnt going to happen before the election anyway, it is better everyone knows that and stops pretending to be negotiating. What makes Trump look worse before the election: trying and trying to get a deal with no success, or pointing out that the other side doesnt want a deal for political reasons and pulling out of talks?
Now Trump will take his proposed stimulus to the American people. That includes more checks for American families, a payroll tax cut (which some Senate Republicans have opposed because of so-called fiscal conservatism), a modest amount of enhanced unemployment, and more aid for small businesses.
Trump should hammer Democrats for being opposed to a payroll tax cut a tax that uniquely hits working Americans. Such a line is particularly useful to blunt Democratic criticisms of the corporate tax cut.
President Trump should also remind Americans of Joe Biden and Pelosis big priorities: A bailout for Democrat public-sector unions and an end to the Trump tax cuts cap on the state and local tax deduction (SALT), which would amount to a massive tax cut for the blue-state rich. In other words, it is an opportunity to further make the GOP ticket the party of the working man and woman.
I’d take some freedom from government overreach over redistributed cash from unborn generations any day.
Thank you Mr. President. Passing the House’s insane bill would be a huge transfer of wealth from hard-working Americans to fat cat unions. It’s sickening what these Dimms are capable of.
28 days out. No money appropriated now would get into voters’ hands before Election Day anyhow. Trump played this right.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrumpIf I am sent a Stand Alone Bill for Stimulus Checks ($1,200), they will go out to our great people IMMEDIATELY. I am ready to sign right now. Are you listening Nancy?
@MarkMeadows @senatemajldr @kevinomccarthy @SpeakerPelosi @SenSchumer
10:18 PM · Oct 6, 2020·
Twitter for iPhone
What he's saying is....put out a stimulus package on things you agree about. Gee....sounds like common sense to me.
But Nancy....she insists on a blackmail attempt. Bet she's p****** off a lot of Dems...and their constituents
He told Pelosi how to solve this. She’s a stupid, stubborn b****.
Nancy wants to send $1200 to illegals, too.
I assume this will be brought up in the VEEP debate. Pence has to hammer the fact that Pres. Trump wants the individual stimulus checks and relief for businesses IMMEDIATELY and that Pelosi is the problem.
It’s always tough for a Republican to get into the “blame game” on this kind of thing because the media always takes the Dems’ side, and the debate “moderator” will frame the question in a “when did you stop beating your wife” way aimed at Trump. Also, Harris will likely be told to use the stimulus issue as an opportunity to blame Pres. Trump for the entire coronavirus once again. Pence has to be prepared for this stuff.
Only to an audience who thinks on a level higher than "Where's my check?"
I sent this Comment (about my 3rd or 4th one on this topic) very early in the morning (about 4am):
President Trump: this is about the 3rd or 4th time I have addressed this issue in a contact submission to your Administration. I once again reiterate: please use this tactic politically RIGHT AWAY. I heard on the TV that finally, while the Dems/MSM are making hay about your breaking off negotiations to continue stimulus talks because of Pelosis total lack to negotiating in good faith, you have said you would sign a stand alone agreement to pay every U.S. citizen a $1200 stimulus payment. FINALLY.
Now, please up the ante, as I have previously recommended. Make the amount $1500 per citizen. Make it eye catching by making the amount $2020 per citizen, an amount all will remember. And dont just say it once or twice and then let the offer drop. Fan your campaign troops out all over the fruited plain repeating this mantra of a STAND ALONE BILL offer, daily. Make it your own.
Use VP Pence as the vehicle to introduce this offer to millions of the watching public at the VP debate tonight so that all can hear your offer. Hammer it home repetitively that Pelosi is not negotiating in good faith and that you want to get as much money back into the hands of our citizens ASAP, no strings attached, one large Stimulus Check to every U.S. citizen. Keep this up DAY AFTER DAY until the election so that everyone knows how serious you are. Make Pelosi the ogre.
This is psychological warfare and you must put the blame for the failure of the stimulus negotiations where it truly belongs, with Speaker Pelosi/DEMS. If you dont seize this moment, you will live to regret it big-time. Fight fire with fire. MAGA.
When I speak with my friends, acquaintances, relatives, this is all they talk about. Where is my promised stimulus check? It would go to all individuals, including your targeted audience of small business owners, the lower & middle class, to everyone that is a legal citizen. Give the folks what the vast majority truly want, a stimulus check. DO IT NOW!
Contact the White House | The White House
Pence needs a very sharp prepared line on this. Something like “Pelosi wants to hold the economy hostage so her incredibly mismanaged state of California gets a massive bailout from tax payers from better run states”. I’m not good at coming up with stuff like that but someone on the team has to come up with something that really makes an impression. I have a feeling Harris will have something about “tax cuts for the rich”.
Yes it will. The very people who vote for Trump need that stimulus check.
Here’s an article from a very smart Trump supporter, John Curtis, at oninecolumnist .com
https://onlinecolumnist.com/2020/10/05/trump-white-house-crumbles/
“No, Shutting Down Another Stimulus Wont Cost Trump The Election”
No time to read all that blather.
The sky is blue, water is wet, please read my treatise about it. /s
If anything this will HELP Trump. He has already proven that he did everything he could to negotiate a deal with Democrats.
THEY, would not “give him a win” before the election, to their own detriment, might I add.
This will show Trump as a tough negotiator, standing up to partisan Democrat DEMANDS, even though they are in no position to DEMAND ANYTHING! (except phony impeachments).
MORE WINNING for Trump!
Who is really excited about another trillion in debt?
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