THIRD WORLD USA
Trump refuses to budge over aid bill, imperiling jobless benefits for millions
Washington residents protest to cancel rent during coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic
Steve Holland and Raphael Satter
Fri, December 25, 2020, 10:07 PM MST
PALM BEACH, Fla/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Millions of Americans are about to see their jobless benefits expire on Saturday as President Donald Trump has so far refused to sign into law a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package, insisting that it did not do enough to help everyday people.
Trump stunned Republicans and Democrats alike when he said this week he was unhappy with the massive bill, which provides $892 billion in badly needed coronavirus relief, including extending emergency unemployment benefits that expire at the close of Dec. 26, and $1.4 trillion for normal government spending.
Without Trump's signature, about 14 million people could lose those extra benefits, according to Labor Department data. A partial government shutdown will begin on Tuesday, putting millions of government workers' incomes at risk, unless Congress can agree a stop-gap government funding bill before then.
After months of wrangling, Republicans and Democrats agreed to the package last weekend, with the support of the White House. Trump, who hands over power to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20, did not object to the terms of the deal before Congress voted it through on Monday night.
But since then he has complained that the bill gives too much money to special interests, cultural projects and foreign aid, while the provision of $600 stimulus checks to millions of struggling Americans was too small. He has demanded that be raised to $2,000.
"I simply want to get our great people $2000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill," the president tweeted on Saturday.
His refusal to sign prompted a sharp rebuke from Biden, who called on the outgoing Republican president to act immediately.
"This abdication of responsibility has devastating consequences. ... This bill is critical. It needs to be signed into law now," Biden, who is spending the holiday in his home state of Delaware, said in a statement. The president-elect was scheduled to meet with his transition advisers on Sunday.
Americans are living through an unprecedented holiday season amid a pandemic that has killed nearly 330,000 people in the United States, with a daily death toll now repeatedly well over 3,000 people, the highest since the pandemic began.
Many economists agree the bill's aid is too low but say the immediate support is still urgently needed.
'EXTRAORDINARILY HARD'
A source familiar with the situation said Trump's objection to the bill caught many White House officials by surprise. His criticism of the bill in tweets dashed hopes that he would sign the bill over the weekend.
Trump spent much of Thursday and Christmas Day golfing at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The bill has been sent to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence, where Trump spent Saturday with members of his family, including senior advisers Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, and daughter Ivanka Trump.
According to his daily schedule, Trump was involved in "many meetings and calls," although the White House did not provide details. He had no events scheduled for Sunday
The president also found time to reiterate in several tweets his baseless claims of election fraud and accuse his fellow Republicans of abandoning him in his bid to overturn the election result, already shot down multiple times by U.S. courts. He has yet to acknowledge Biden's Nov. 3 victory.
"Time for Republican Senators to step up and fight for the Presidency," he tweeted on Saturday evening.
Trump appeared to be in an isolated position on the aid bill as well, with few Republican lawmakers voicing support for his position. The White House had no updates as to whether Trump would sign the bill by Monday, an official said.
Representative French Hill of Arkansas, a Republican who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, told Fox on Saturday he hoped Trump would sign the bill at once because it would provide immediate relief to Americans.
"I wish he had made that pitch for $2,000 as vociferously over the last three weeks as after the bill was passed. It might have given us more leverage to get a slightly higher payment," Hill said. At this point, he added, "It's going to be extraordinarily hard to get that payment through the Senate and the House."
The U.S. Congress, which normally is adjourned the last week of December, is preparing to return to work. The Democratic-controlled House plans to vote on legislation providing one-time $2,000 checks to individuals.
Trump last week vetoed a $740 billion bill authorizing the nation's defense programs. On Monday, the House is scheduled to vote on overriding Trump's veto. If the House vote succeeds, the Senate could hold its vote as early as Tuesday. Both chambers passed the defense spending bill with margins well over the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
(Reporting by Steve Holland in Palm Beach, Florida, and Raphael Satter in Washington; Additional reporting by Julia Harte in Washington and Simon Lewis in Wilmington, Delaware; Writing by Michelle Price and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Mary Milliken )
While in Florida Golfing, Trump Allows Jobless Benefits to Expire for Millions
Peter Wade
Sat, December 26, 2020,
While President Donald Trump spends the holidays at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, millions of Americans will lose their jobless benefits.
Trump’s refusal to sign the $2.3 trillion Covid-19 relief and government funding bill, which his own administration negotiated, means approximately 14 million Americans will see their unemployment benefits expire on Saturday.
With at least a partial government shutdown looming if not signed by Tuesday, the bill has been sent to Florida where it awaits the president’s signature or veto.
Trump’s attempt to upend the bipartisan compromise by leadership in the House and Senate, insisting on $2,000 stimulus checks instead of the current $600 in the bill, is as fraudulent as his rigged election claims. It’s important to remember that although Trump is now saying, “Give our people the money!” his administration was involved in the negotiations, and it’s his party that is insisting on keeping payments to Americans low.
According to the New York Times, since November an additional 398,000 people filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, one of two programs that will expire on Saturday night. And even if Trump signed the bill today, it could still take four to six weeks for people to receive their new benefits, and they will need to submit proof that they are eligible.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to hold a unanimous consent vote Monday on legislation for stimulus checks that would meet Trump’s supposed desire for $2,000 direct payments, although that is unlikely to pass or get past the Senate. But the vote will put Republicans in Congress on the spot since they’ve balked at going above $600, following their rediscovered concerns about the deficit.
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Trump will cost jobless workers a week of $300 federal unemployment benefits if he doesn't sign the relief bill by the end of Saturday
Joseph Zeballos-Roig
Sat, December 26, 2020
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
The president could cost jobless workers a week of $300 federal unemployment benefits if the relief legislation is not signed by midnight Saturday.
State agencies can only distribute benefits for weeks the legislation is enacted, experts say.
Nearly 14 millions Americans are threatened with the loss of all their unemployment aid this weekend.
President Donald Trump has suggested he may reject the $900 billion coronavirus relief package that Congress approved earlier this week unless lawmakers include $2,000 stimulus payments. He still hasn't signed it into law and has given few indications of which direction he'll swing.
The continued delay endangers a broad range of federal assistance programs in the legislation as well. It could prove costly for millions of Americans receiving unemployment benefits since they were supposed to restart December 26.
If Trump doesn't sign the federal rescue package by the end of Saturday, it would effectively cut a week of $300 federal unemployment benefits for jobless people, according to Michele Evermore, a policy expert at the National Employment Law Project.
However, she cautioned it's hard to project without federal guidance how the holdup would affect other unemployment programs.
"I'm not entirely sure how this will be interpreted - at the very least, we lose a week of the $300," Evermore told Insider. "No matter what, if he doesn't sign, next week it goes down to 10 weeks of an extra $300."
Experts like Evermore say a two-to-three week gap in unemployment benefits is inevitable since states need time to recalibrate their computer systems to send the payments.
States can't provide benefits for weeks before the relief legislation is actually approved. Depending when it's signed, that could put labor agencies on track to restart the payouts during the first week of January. The $300 federal supplement would still end on March 14, setting up only a 10-week extension instead of 11.
Trump's move also threatens to financially devastate millions of Americans heading into next year. Saturday is the last day that two federal unemployment programs distribute their payments. They are the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for gig workers and freelancers and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation for people who exhausted state benefits.
That pair of programs set up under the CARES Act in March cover 14 million people and expire this month. The president's calendar has no public events listed for the weekend. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The president maintained his position in a tweet on Saturday morning, saying he wanted to increase stimulus payments and remove unrelated provisions from the large tax-and-spending package.
"I simply want to get out great people $2000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill," Trump tweeted. "Also, stop the billions of dollars in 'pork'."
Democrats fiercely criticized Trump on Saturday. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said the president was "throwing a tantrum" and urged him to sign the legislation.
"If Donald Trump doesn't sign the COVID relief bill today, many workers won't receive their income for the week of December 27- not even retroactively," he said in a statement. "The ability of millions of Americans to keep a roof over their heads and buy groceries hangs in the balance."
On Tuesday evening, Trump threatened in a video posted on Twitter to derail the $900 billion coronavirus relief package alongside the government spending bill it was paired with to accelerate their passage. He blasted provisions in the funding legislation such as money for the Kennedy Center, though his budget request had allocated funds for it.
The development stunned lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who had expected the president to sign the legislation given the White House's public statements on it. Trump had largely delegated relief negotiations to Congressional leaders for months.
The coronavirus relief legislation contained $600 direct payments, $300 weekly federal unemployment benefits, funding for food stamps and rental assistance, and small business aid among other measures. It passed Congress with a strong bipartisan majority on Monday evening, which could potentially pave the way for a veto override.
In a bit of political jockeying, House Democrats on Thursday swiftly attempted to advance a measure to approve $2,000 stimulus checks. But House Republicans immediately blocked it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi assailed the GOP move and vowed to bring up the legislation for another vote on Monday.
Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, a top Trump ally in Congress, suggested the president was holding firm on his position on Saturday afternoon.
"After spending some time with President @realDonaldTrump today, I am convinced he is more determined than ever to increase stimulus payments to $2000 per person and challenge Section 230 big tech liability protection," Graham tweeted.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Trump’s refusal to sign coronavirus relief bill endangers jobless aid for 14 million Americans
Alex Woodward
Sat, December 26, 2020
The president could cost jobless workers a week of $300 federal unemployment benefits if the relief legislation is not signed by midnight Saturday.
State agencies can only distribute benefits for weeks the legislation is enacted, experts say.
Nearly 14 millions Americans are threatened with the loss of all their unemployment aid this weekend.
President Donald Trump has suggested he may reject the $900 billion coronavirus relief package that Congress approved earlier this week unless lawmakers include $2,000 stimulus payments. He still hasn't signed it into law and has given few indications of which direction he'll swing.
The continued delay endangers a broad range of federal assistance programs in the legislation as well. It could prove costly for millions of Americans receiving unemployment benefits since they were supposed to restart December 26.
If Trump doesn't sign the federal rescue package by the end of Saturday, it would effectively cut a week of $300 federal unemployment benefits for jobless people, according to Michele Evermore, a policy expert at the National Employment Law Project.
However, she cautioned it's hard to project without federal guidance how the holdup would affect other unemployment programs.
"I'm not entirely sure how this will be interpreted - at the very least, we lose a week of the $300," Evermore told Insider. "No matter what, if he doesn't sign, next week it goes down to 10 weeks of an extra $300."
Experts like Evermore say a two-to-three week gap in unemployment benefits is inevitable since states need time to recalibrate their computer systems to send the payments.
States can't provide benefits for weeks before the relief legislation is actually approved. Depending when it's signed, that could put labor agencies on track to restart the payouts during the first week of January. The $300 federal supplement would still end on March 14, setting up only a 10-week extension instead of 11.
Trump's move also threatens to financially devastate millions of Americans heading into next year. Saturday is the last day that two federal unemployment programs distribute their payments. They are the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for gig workers and freelancers and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation for people who exhausted state benefits.
That pair of programs set up under the CARES Act in March cover 14 million people and expire this month. The president's calendar has no public events listed for the weekend. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The president maintained his position in a tweet on Saturday morning, saying he wanted to increase stimulus payments and remove unrelated provisions from the large tax-and-spending package.
"I simply want to get out great people $2000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill," Trump tweeted. "Also, stop the billions of dollars in 'pork'."
Democrats fiercely criticized Trump on Saturday. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said the president was "throwing a tantrum" and urged him to sign the legislation.
"If Donald Trump doesn't sign the COVID relief bill today, many workers won't receive their income for the week of December 27- not even retroactively," he said in a statement. "The ability of millions of Americans to keep a roof over their heads and buy groceries hangs in the balance."
On Tuesday evening, Trump threatened in a video posted on Twitter to derail the $900 billion coronavirus relief package alongside the government spending bill it was paired with to accelerate their passage. He blasted provisions in the funding legislation such as money for the Kennedy Center, though his budget request had allocated funds for it.
The development stunned lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who had expected the president to sign the legislation given the White House's public statements on it. Trump had largely delegated relief negotiations to Congressional leaders for months.
The coronavirus relief legislation contained $600 direct payments, $300 weekly federal unemployment benefits, funding for food stamps and rental assistance, and small business aid among other measures. It passed Congress with a strong bipartisan majority on Monday evening, which could potentially pave the way for a veto override.
In a bit of political jockeying, House Democrats on Thursday swiftly attempted to advance a measure to approve $2,000 stimulus checks. But House Republicans immediately blocked it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi assailed the GOP move and vowed to bring up the legislation for another vote on Monday.
Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, a top Trump ally in Congress, suggested the president was holding firm on his position on Saturday afternoon.
"After spending some time with President @realDonaldTrump today, I am convinced he is more determined than ever to increase stimulus payments to $2000 per person and challenge Section 230 big tech liability protection," Graham tweeted.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Trump’s refusal to sign coronavirus relief bill endangers jobless aid for 14 million Americans
Alex Woodward
Sat, December 26, 2020
(Getty Images)
Joe Biden has demanded Donald Trump immediately sign a broad government funding bill as unemployment benefits lapse for millions of out-of-work Americans, calling the president’s refusal an “abdication of responsibility” with “devastating consequences.”
Extended unemployment relief that has served as a critical lifeline for millions of Americans during the public health crisis expired on Saturday, following the president’s last-minute rejection of a spending package that includes $900bn in coronavirus aid.
“It is the day after Christmas, and millions of families don’t know if they’ll be able to make ends meet because of president Donald Trump’s refusal to sign an economic relief bill approved by Congress with an overwhelming and bipartisan majority,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
If the president refuses to sign the bill or veto it all together, he threatens a broad range of Covid-19-related relief measures for roughly 14 million people, including weekly unemployment payments and a federal moratorium on evictions that is set to expire on New Year’s Eve.
After several weeks of negotiations before an eleventh-hour deadline on Monday, Congress agreed to a $900bn relief package that includes a $600 one-time direct payment to most Americans, along with an extension of $300 in federal weekly unemployment aid, in addition to state-level benefits, for 11 weeks.
But on Wednesday, before he left the White House to spend Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the president released a video message calling the legislation a “disgrace” and demanded Congress “immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items” from the bill.
On Saturday, he announced: “I simply want to get our great people $2,000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill.”
The president has conflated the omnibus spending bill, which includes budget items the White House sought months ago and that his Republican allies have approved, with the relief package, arguing that it does not contain enough one-time direct payments to most Americans and includes too much in foreign aid.
Those budget items were among those negotiated between Congress and the White House. On Monday, 128 of 195 House Republicans voted to support the budget.
If Mr Trump does sign the bill on Saturday, there is still likely to be a temporary lapse in benefits, as states scramble to adjust to the new timeline, potentially cutting off aid for out-of-work Americans for at least a week, effectively cutting funding down from 11 weeks to just 10, according to Michele Evermore with the National Employment Law Project.
The bill signs off on $600 cheques for most Americans, but Mr Trump has pushed for $2,000 checks – Democrats have pushed for larger checks for months, following a one-time payment in April of $1,200, but were repeatedly rejected by congressional Republicans.
Mr Biden has repeatedly referred to the funding measure as a “down payment” ahead of his inauguration on 20 January, after which he has pledged more support to Americans during the emergency.
During debate over the latest relief package, Democrats sought another round of similarly sized payments, but those efforts were blocked by lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Senate, arguing that higher payments would negatively impact the federal deficit, despite their overwhelming support for corporate tax deductions in the bill, along with the president’s $1.75 trillion tax cuts and the recent passage of a $741bn defence budget.
Democrats have sought to leverage the president’s demands for $2,000 payments, but Republicans rebuffed the president’s demands on Christmas Eve.
“Why would politicians not want to give people $2,000, rather than only $600?" the president said on Twitter on Christmas, which he spent playing on golf. “Give our people the money!”
More than 20 million Americans are relying on some form of unemployment aid.
Roughly 869,000 people filed new claims for state jobless benefits within the last week ending on 19 December, which has fallen from the previous week but is significantly higher than jobless claims from a month earlier, before a new spike in Covid-19 infections and deaths across the US.
Nearly 400,000 people filed for aid through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance programme, one of two federal programmes that will expire without the president’s signature.
A partial government shutdown will also begin on Tuesday unless Congress can agree to a temporary stop-gap measure to fund the government until it can reach an agreement on the larger funding bill.
Joe Biden has demanded Donald Trump immediately sign a broad government funding bill as unemployment benefits lapse for millions of out-of-work Americans, calling the president’s refusal an “abdication of responsibility” with “devastating consequences.”
Extended unemployment relief that has served as a critical lifeline for millions of Americans during the public health crisis expired on Saturday, following the president’s last-minute rejection of a spending package that includes $900bn in coronavirus aid.
“It is the day after Christmas, and millions of families don’t know if they’ll be able to make ends meet because of president Donald Trump’s refusal to sign an economic relief bill approved by Congress with an overwhelming and bipartisan majority,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
If the president refuses to sign the bill or veto it all together, he threatens a broad range of Covid-19-related relief measures for roughly 14 million people, including weekly unemployment payments and a federal moratorium on evictions that is set to expire on New Year’s Eve.
After several weeks of negotiations before an eleventh-hour deadline on Monday, Congress agreed to a $900bn relief package that includes a $600 one-time direct payment to most Americans, along with an extension of $300 in federal weekly unemployment aid, in addition to state-level benefits, for 11 weeks.
But on Wednesday, before he left the White House to spend Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the president released a video message calling the legislation a “disgrace” and demanded Congress “immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items” from the bill.
On Saturday, he announced: “I simply want to get our great people $2,000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill.”
The president has conflated the omnibus spending bill, which includes budget items the White House sought months ago and that his Republican allies have approved, with the relief package, arguing that it does not contain enough one-time direct payments to most Americans and includes too much in foreign aid.
Those budget items were among those negotiated between Congress and the White House. On Monday, 128 of 195 House Republicans voted to support the budget.
If Mr Trump does sign the bill on Saturday, there is still likely to be a temporary lapse in benefits, as states scramble to adjust to the new timeline, potentially cutting off aid for out-of-work Americans for at least a week, effectively cutting funding down from 11 weeks to just 10, according to Michele Evermore with the National Employment Law Project.
The bill signs off on $600 cheques for most Americans, but Mr Trump has pushed for $2,000 checks – Democrats have pushed for larger checks for months, following a one-time payment in April of $1,200, but were repeatedly rejected by congressional Republicans.
Mr Biden has repeatedly referred to the funding measure as a “down payment” ahead of his inauguration on 20 January, after which he has pledged more support to Americans during the emergency.
During debate over the latest relief package, Democrats sought another round of similarly sized payments, but those efforts were blocked by lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Senate, arguing that higher payments would negatively impact the federal deficit, despite their overwhelming support for corporate tax deductions in the bill, along with the president’s $1.75 trillion tax cuts and the recent passage of a $741bn defence budget.
Democrats have sought to leverage the president’s demands for $2,000 payments, but Republicans rebuffed the president’s demands on Christmas Eve.
“Why would politicians not want to give people $2,000, rather than only $600?" the president said on Twitter on Christmas, which he spent playing on golf. “Give our people the money!”
More than 20 million Americans are relying on some form of unemployment aid.
Roughly 869,000 people filed new claims for state jobless benefits within the last week ending on 19 December, which has fallen from the previous week but is significantly higher than jobless claims from a month earlier, before a new spike in Covid-19 infections and deaths across the US.
Nearly 400,000 people filed for aid through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance programme, one of two federal programmes that will expire without the president’s signature.
A partial government shutdown will also begin on Tuesday unless Congress can agree to a temporary stop-gap measure to fund the government until it can reach an agreement on the larger funding bill.
