President Trump just made a bold move and put Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in a tight spot heading into the November election. “The president is taking action to provide relief to unemployed Americans, among other actions to provide relief,” a senior administration official told Fox News Saturday.
Chuck Schumer warned Trump his executive orders will be “litigated” but Chuck and Pelosi are bluffing – can you imagine them suing to stop money going to people unemployed this close to an election? Neither can Trump.
Today Trump checkmated Pelosi with a few executive orders but it is the American people in need of a functioning Congress, but who sadly do not have one, who are the real winners.
Trump will cut payroll taxes for people earning less than $100k a year starting August first. It will last until Jan 2021.
His second executive order will be to protect people from eviction. Trump’s third order will be to give unemployed people and an extra $400 a week in expanded benefits. States will be asked to cover 25% of the cost.
His fourth order was to give relief to student loan borrowers.
From Fox News:
The Trump administration believes it has access to $140 billion which it can “reprogram.” That includes $80 billion in untapped money from the big coronavirus bill signed into law in March and $40 billion from the Disaster Relief Fund.
The White House believes it can divert some of this funding without congressional blessing, similar to how Trump in 2019 declared a national emergency at the border with Mexico to shift billions of dollars from the Pentagon budget to help pay for a border wall.
Pelosi and Schumer earlier this week expressed skepticism about Trump’s executive powers.
“You can’t move that much money,” Pelosi said. “We’re talking about a major investment.”
The Democrats want the White House to continue negotiating with Congress on a big package.
“A better way to do this is [to] come to an agreement that meets the needs of the American people — a much better way,” Schumer said.
The need for relief is pressing as millions of Americans lost out on the $600-per-week federal unemployment benefit that expired at the end of July. A partial moratorium on evictions on properties with government-backed mortgages also expired at the end of last month.
There are some 110 million Americans living in rental households; up to 23 million renters – or 20 percent – are at risk of eviction by Sept. 30, according to an analysis by the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project.
With the supplemental $600 in unemployment benefits now officially lapsed, about 24 million Americans say they have little to no chance of being able to pay next month’s rent, according to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Schumer warns that if the President goes ahead with broader executive orders, they will be “litigated”
— Lauren Fox (@FoxReports) August 7, 2020
