Trump Sows Chaos With New Demands on Covid Relief

By Yuval Rosenberg

Trump Sows Chaos With New Demands on Covid Relief

President Trump on Tuesday night abruptly threw the $900 billion
Covid relief package approved by Congress into chaos, calling the
bill that his administration helped craft a "disgrace" and
demanding changes to the hard-fought deal, including an increase in
direct payments from $600 to $2,000 per person.

In a video posted to Twitter, Trump complained that the stimulus
checks included in the relief package were "ridiculously low" and
criticized a litany of other provisions in the massive legislative
package passed this week, seeming to confuse the Covid relief deal
and the $1.4 trillion catchall spending bill it was paired with to
ease passage.

"It’s called the Covid relief bill, but it has almost nothing to
do with Covid," Trump said in his video, complaining about various
appropriations he termed wasteful. "Congress found plenty of money
for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests, while
sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it," he
said.

A last-minute muddle: As The Washington Post
noted: "Virtually all of the complaints Trump made
in the four-minute video — including foreign aid agreements, aid to
the Kennedy Center, fish management language and more — are not
part of the $900 billion covid relief agreement but rather included
in other, separately negotiated parts of the legislation, including
a $1.4 trillion omnibus appropriations bill and a measure
authorizing $9.9 billion in water projects." And CNN
reports that many of the items Trump objected to also
appeared in his own budget proposal.

The president was largely absent from the congressional
negotiations toward a coronavirus relief deal in recent weeks,
focusing instead on baseless and unsuccessful claims that he lost
the election because of widespread fraud. Trump had reportedly
complained to aides last week that the $600 checks should be
bigger, but was convinced — temporarily, it now seems — to not push
the issue for fear of derailing the ongoing talks.

Trump’s comments reportedly blindsided some White House and
congressional aides and left others in the administration
embarrassed.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had represented the
administration in talks — and, as The Washington Post points out,
the $600 checks were his idea. "In a meeting with
congressional leaders on Dec. 15, Mrs. Pelosi repeatedly asked Mr.
Mnuchin what Mr. Trump’s position was on the direct payments, but
he declined to answer," The Wall Street Journal
reported, citing a person familiar with the
meeting.

In a statement
released earlier on Tuesday, Mnuchin said he was pleased that the
Covid relief package had passed "an overwhelmingly bipartisan
basis" and thanked Trump and congressional leaders for their work
"to provide critical additional economic relief for American
workers, families, and businesses." He added: "We are fully
committed to ensuring that hardworking Americans get this vital
support as quickly as possible and to further strengthening our
economic recovery."

Making them squirm: As Washington scrambled to make sense
of Trump’s surprise announcement, some suggested that he was
responding to conservative backlash against the bill. "Current and
former administration officials speculated on Tuesday evening that
Mr. Trump did not like the narrative that he had been sidelined
from the negotiations and that calling for higher direct payments
was a political move to please his base," The New York Times

reported.

One unnamed aide told The Wall Street Journal that Trump’s move
was an effort to make Congress squirm. If so, Republicans are
likely to be the ones feeling most uncomfortable. "This is what
happens with a president who places more trust in conservative
fever swamp Twitter than his own Treasury Secretary. His
administration helped negotiate this bill, and he just pulled down
the pants of every Republican who voted for it," Brendan Buck, who
served as a top aide to former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) told
the Post.

Some "insiders" reportedly suggested that may have been Trump’s
goal, with the president intentionally punishing members of his own
party because he felt angry and betrayed that GOP leaders had
accepted the outcome of the election.

Democrats, on the other hand, eagerly took Trump up on his
demand, with party leaders and members voicing support for the
larger checks, seizing the opportunity to ratchet up pressure on
congressional Republicans, most of whom oppose the additional
spending and sought to limit the size of the aid package to less
than $1 trillion. Upping the payments to $2,000 per adult would add
some $370 billion to the cost of the package, according to an

estimate by economist Ernie Tedeschi, putting it well
above the GOP’s ceiling.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded to the president’s
Twitter post with one of her own: "Republicans repeatedly refused
to say what amount the President wanted for direct checks. At last,
the President has agreed to $2,000 — Democrats are ready to bring
this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!"

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized
Republicans for previously blocking larger stimulus checks and
pressed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to go along this
time, tweeting: "I’m in. Whaddya say, Mitch? Let’s not get bogged
down with ideological offsets and unrelated items and just DO THIS!
The American people deserve it."

What’s next: No one knows at this point. "No one on
either side of Pennsylvania Avenue appears to know what Trump’s
plan is — or even if there is one," Politico
reported.

How Trump’s challenge plays out in the coming days will
determine whether coronavirus relief is delayed and the government
shuts down.

Pelosi is set to stage a vote of support for the $2,000 payments
by unanimous consent Thursday, but any Democratic effort to amend
the relief package or approve payments isn’t likely to succeed.

In a letter to colleagues on Wednesday, the speaker said that
bringing up a standalone bill to increase the direct payments would
require the agreement of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
(R-CA). "If the President truly wants to join us in $2,000
payments, he should call upon Leader McCarthy to agree to our
Unanimous Consent request," she wrote. Any House member could also
block the bill from advancing by denying unanimous consent. It’s
not clear that the Senate would take up the measure either, and
Senate Republicans are unlikely to approve the larger payments.

It’s worth noting, though, that Trump did not explicitly
threaten to veto the Covid relief and spending package.

"I am also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the
wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and to send
me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to
deliver a Covid relief package, and maybe that administration will
be me," he said.

Having expressed his displeasure with the stimulus checks and
made his point to his base and voters who he might court in another
presidential campaign, Trump could still relent and sign the
package. "Two people close to the president said the president is
unlikely to actually veto the bill and cause a government shutdown
because he doesn’t want to delay funding for distribution of the
Covid-19 vaccine, which he considers one of his biggest
achievements," Politico reported.

If Trump does veto the bill, or refuses to sign it, the
government could shut down on December 29, when a stopgap funding
measure expires, and emergency benefits provided by an earlier
relief package, including an eviction moratorium and extended
unemployment insurance, would expire by the end of the month.

Congress could still avert a shutdown by approving another
stopgap funding bill, but averting additional economic pain would
be harder.

The latest relief bill passed with a veto-proof majority in both
houses of Congress, but with the 116th Congress ending in just
days, there’s a chance that Trump could
prevent it from being enacted via a "pocket
veto" — not signing it before the 117th Congress begins
on January 3.

The new Congress would then have to pass the package again. In
the meantime, millions of jobless workers would see a lapse in
benefits, and the expiration of emergency unemployment programs
could push nearly 5 million people into poverty virtually
overnight, according to
an estimate from researchers at Columbia
University cited by
The New York Times.

Trump on Wednesday left Washington, D.C., for his
Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he reportedly plans to stay
through the new year.

Trump Vetoes $741 Billion Defense Bill

President Trump on Wednesday carried through on his threat to
veto the $741 billion National Defense Authorization Act, setting
up what is expected to be the first veto override during his
administration.

Both the House and the Senate passed the bill earlier this month
with veto-proof majorities, and Congress has already
made plans for a post-Christmas session during
which lawmakers plan to override the veto. Congress will have until
noon on January 3 to do so.

In his
statement announcing the veto, Trump charged that
the bill is "a ‘gift’ to China and Russia." Boasting that "No one
has worked harder, or approved more money for the military, than I
have," the president recited a series of complaints about the bill,
including its failure to repeal legal protections for tech firms,
its establishment of a process for removing the names of
Confederate leaders from U.S. military bases and its restrictions
on the executive’s ability to bring troops home from overseas.

"For all of these reasons, I cannot support this bill," Trump
said. "My Administration has taken strong actions to help keep our
Nation safe and support our service members. I will not approve
this bill, which would put the interests of the Washington, D.C.
establishment over those of the American people."

Congress reacts: House Armed Services Committee Chairman
Adam Smith (D-WA) said Wednesday he was confident the bill would
become law. "The FY21 NDAA passed with overwhelming, veto-proof
support in both the House and Senate, and I remain confident that
Congress will override this harmful veto," Smith
said in a statement.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was more pointed in his criticism,
invoking the military pay raise included in the bill. "Donald Trump
just vetoed a pay raise for our troops so he can defend dead
Confederate traitors," Schumer tweeted.
"Democrats will vote to override it."

Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, one of Trump’s most loyal
Republican allies, released a statement praising the president
while calling for passage of the bill. Inhofe did not mention that
Trump had in fact vetoed the bill and was the only impediment to
passing the bill into law.

Economy Losing Momentum as Year Ends

As Washington teeters on the edge of chaos, the U.S. economy
continues to send signals that it needs help, with more than 1
million people filing new jobless claims last week.

About 869,000 people filed for unemployment benefits in state
programs last week, the Labor Department
said Wednesday, while another 398,000 applied for
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the temporary federal program
that provides benefits for self-employed and gig workers — and that
is scheduled to expire in a matter of days if the $900 billion
relief package passed by Congress fails to become law.

The numbers show a modest decrease on a week-over-week basis but
remain at exceptionally high levels. "The economy is still pretty
soft," Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James Financial,

told Bloomberg. "The level of jobless claims
suggests there’s still labor-market weakness."

Incomes and spending drop: Total personal income fell by
1.1% in November, the Bureau of Economic Analysis
announced Wednesday, marking the second month in a
row with a decline. Spending fell, as well, with personal
consumption expenditures decreasing by $63.3 billion, or 0.4%.

"The income and spending data was just the latest evidence that
after rapid gains in the spring and summer, the recovery has
stalled and could be going into reverse,"
wrote Ben Casselman of The New York Times. Brown
of Raymond James said the data show "the pandemic’s impact on the
season: There’s less seasonal shopping than usual, there’s less
seasonal travel."

Dione Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, said the
coronavirus is still calling the shots in the economy. "We are
losing momentum at a critical time," she told Bloomberg. "Consumer
spending is pulling back or slowing down at a time when we should
be ramping up, and that’s because of the surge in Covid cases."

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