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The president of United States, Donald trump, tinged with uncertainty the delivery of financial aid for pandemic agreed by Congress after arduous negotiations, a threat that leaves millions of people in discomfort days after the expiration of the subsidies on which they depend.
After months of intense discussions, Democratic and Republican lawmakers reached an agreement in Congress this week to pass a $ 900 billion package, but on Tuesday night, the outgoing president threatened not to sign it if the legislation is not amended.
The package includes direct aid of $ 600 for people in difficulties due to the crisis that brought the pandemic, but Trump said he wants to raise it to $ 2,000.
The Republican president asked to be sent a “proper” amended bill, otherwise, he warned that the approval of the plan could depend on “the next Democratic administration,” led by President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on the 20th from January.
In particular, he said he wants Congress to get rid “immediately of unnecessary items and waste of this legislation”.
Trump’s announcement was greeted with surprise in Washington and among Democrats who negotiated the budget package with the outgoing government’s Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin. The opposition said the White House never put a figure on aid for the people.
The project is part of a broader package that includes budgets for next year, so it includes items for culture or foreign aid, which the president questioned.
Trump’s position, which did not mention the veto of the project but could paralyze it, left the future of the package in uncertainty, since Republican leaders have not spoken about their intentions in the face of a negotiation.
Given the support the legislation received in Congress, a veto could be blocked in the Senate, but It is feared that Trump will resort to a maneuver known as “the pocket veto”, which consists of the president retaining a law while allowing the regulatory days to sign it to run.
In this case, the deadline also coincides with the end of the legislature of the current Congress, on January 3.
He delay may be critical for desperate distressed americans who have waited months for extraordinary help, depleting all their savings as December 26 approaches, when the subsidies expire.
Given the worsening of the crisis, many families expected to receive the extraordinary check to avoid evictions or to eat, at a time when food banks are overloaded.
The $ 2.7 trillion package agreed by Congress at the beginning of the pandemic had created several programs that assisted households in this crisis that led to unemployment reaching a peak of 14.8%.
That figure gradually fell to stabilize at 6.7%, a level that is still double that of before the pandemic.
In this context, Trump has not suspended his vacation plans and is expected to travel this Wednesday to the vacation residence of Mar-a-Lago, in Florida.
The layoffs continue
The publication this Wednesday of the figures of the new applications for unemployment benefits gave urgency to the negotiation. Although lawsuits fell to 803,000, breaking a two-period streak of growth, data released by the Labor Department shows that layoffs continue.
According to official figures, in the week ending December 19, the new requests decreased by 89,000, after two weeks on the rise due to the advance of covid-19.
This decline exceeds the expectations of analysts, who projected a less steep decline.
The HFE consultancy indicated that there was a stronger than expected drop in new applications, but that the data has some seasonal distortions due to the end of the year holidays.
“Still, the layoffs continue at a high rate and they are an indication of the continuing difficulties in the labor market ”, indicated HFE.
The Oxford Economics firm pointed out that “an improvement in the situation of the pandemic is in sight with the vaccine, but the health situation will probably remain bad in the coming months, which will weigh on the labor market and the economy in general” .
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