by Daveda Gruber
On Sunday House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wasn’t timid in blaming Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi D- Calif., for her personal wish list being the problem for Congress not being able to pass another stimulus bill.
McCarthy also defended the use of executive orders by President Trump.
The executive orders defer payroll taxes and replace already expired unemployment befits, as of August 1st, but with a lower amount that would be up to $400 payments each week, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving.
Trump’s executive orders extends previous unemployment benefits, which expired on Aug. 1, was fully funded by Washington, but Trump is asking states to now cover 25 percent.
McCarthy did an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures” a day after Trump signed his executive orders following the collapse of negotiations with Congress on a new coronavirus rescue package and said, “Remember, every time we’ve done legislation when it comes to COVID, Nancy Pelosi has always held it up for her own personal wish list. Remember when we did the Cares Act, she held it up for more than a week when thousands of people were being unemployed because she wanted more money for the arts and the Kennedy Center…now when we are sitting here coming forward with people unemployed again, she held it up.”
There may be legal challenges over control of federal spending.
Still, Trump cast his actions as necessary because lawmakers have been unable to reach an agreement to put more money into the economy.
A failing economy isn’t a good factor for the president in the upcoming November reelection.
Trump is seeking to set aside $44 billion in previously approved disaster aid to help states. It would be up to states to determine how much to spend and when.
McCarthy said, “What President Trump did, he really showed he was the one person in the room that put people before politics.”
He also went on to say that Trump said, “You know what? I’m going to continue to help the people on unemployment. If you’re going to continue to play these games, I’m going to take action and put America first instead of your own personal ambitions.”
McCarthy tweeted:
Every time Congress tries to provide coronavirus-related relief to the American people, Nancy Pelosi holds it up for her own personal pet projects—from the Kennedy Center to pot.
President Trump is the one person in the room who puts people before politics. AMERICA FIRST! pic.twitter.com/UPFdzdtgpQ
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) August 9, 2020
Trump’s executive orders extends previous unemployment benefits, which expired on Aug. 1, was fully funded by Washington, but Trump is asking states to now cover 25 percent.
He is seeking to set aside $44 billion in previously approved disaster aid to help states, but said it would be up to states to determine how much, if any of it, to fund, so the benefits could be smaller still.
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., used their own talking points to criticize what Trump did. They wanted to spend more.
At the start Democrats wanted a $3.4 trillion package, but said they lowered the amount to $2 trillion. Republicans had proposed a $1 trillion plan.
My guess would be that Republicans didn’t want the “pork” that Democrats wanted.
Pelosi and Schumer put out a joint statement which stated, “Today’s meager announcements by the president show President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families. We’re disappointed that instead of putting in the work to solve Americans’ problems, the President instead chose to stay on his luxury golf course to announce unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements to slash the unemployment benefits that millions desperately need and endanger seniors’ Social Security and Medicare.”
The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden called the orders “a series of half-baked measures” and accused him of putting at risk Social Security, which is funded by the payroll tax.
There was also a Republican Senator, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who is a member of the Senate’s Judiciary and Finance panels, who had negative comments for the president.
Sasse said, “The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop.”
He added that Trump “does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law. Under the Constitution, that power belongs to the American people acting through their members of Congress.”
You can’t please all of the people all of the time but the Congress, especially Pelosi and Schumer, must have added money for their own benefit and/or the DNC in general.
In the end, it’s our tax dollars that are being spent and personally, I don’t want to fund the DNC nor do I wish to keep Pelosi with ice cream, chocolate and vodka.
