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This Saturday, federal unemployment benefits expired for more than 12 million Americans at a time when COVID-19 is raging uncontrollably, threatening the recovery of the country’s economy. Still, Trump continues to refuse to sign the bill.
After months of negotiations, on Monday, December 21, Congress approved a package of support for the economy for some 900,000 million dollars. However, President Donald Trump rejected it, calling, among other things, for direct payments to taxpayers to be increased from $ 600 to $ 2,000.
Trump called the package approved by Congress a “disgrace” and said the payments of $ 600 included in the aid are “ridiculously low.”
The problem? This Saturday, federal unemployment benefits expired for more than 12 million Americans at a time when COVID-19 is raging uncontrollably, threatening the recovery of the country’s economy. Still, Trump continues to refuse to sign the bill.
See more: US Congress approves new financial aid plan
What does the aid package offer?
In addition to direct payments, the bailout includes an unemployment subsidy of $ 300 per week, 325,000 million in aid to companies (275,000 of them for payroll), 45,000 million for public transport systems, 82,000 million for schools and billions in food stamps, renter assistance, and vaccine distribution.
What could happen if Trump doesn’t sign the bill?
US President-elect Joe Biden warned Saturday of “devastating consequences” for millions of citizens if the outgoing president does not sign the huge economic stimulus package approved by Congress.
See more: Trump threatens to block bailout, calls for higher direct payments
“This abdication of responsibility has devastating consequences. Today, about 10 million Americans will lose their unemployment insurance benefits, ”warned Biden, referring to the expiration of unemployment benefits as of this Saturday.
If Trump doesn’t sign the bill before midnight, those unemployed workers will stop receiving benefits for at least a week or as long as it takes to correct the situation.
Even if Trump signs this Saturday, December 26, states will still need time to reprogram computer systems, he explained. Michele Evermore Senior Policy Analyst for National Employment Law, to the New York Times.
“States cannot pay benefits before the bill is signed, which means that if the president doesn’t sign by Saturday, benefits won’t restart until the first week of January. But they will still end in mid-March, effectively cutting the extension from 11 to 10 weeks, ”reads an analysis in the US newspaper.
See more: Trump’s future: tons of cash and plenty of options to spend it
And in the event that the stimulus package does not go into effect next Thursday, that midnight on December 31, a national moratorium prohibiting evictions will expire, putting some 30 million Americans at risk of homelessness in the year. new.
Democrats failed Thursday to pass an independent measure in Congress to increase pay to all taxpayers who earn up to $ 75,000 a year, with smaller amounts for those who earn up to $ 99,000.
“The delay means that more small businesses will not survive this dark winter due to lack of access to the bailout they need, and Americans will face further delays in obtaining the direct payments they deserve as quickly as possible to help them deal with the economic devastation caused by covid-19, ”Biden said.
Trump does not change his position
The president did not give any sign this Saturday of having changed his position, in a series of tweets from his private club in Mar-a-Lago (Florida), where he is on vacation and where the bill has arrived in case he decided sign it.
“I just want to get our great people $ 2,000, instead of the paltry $ 600 (in direct transfers) that is now in the bill,” Trump tweeted, despite the fact that it was his own government that proposed the amount of 600 dollars included in the legislative text.
The unemployment benefits that expire this Saturday were established at the beginning of the pandemic and are structured in two programs: one to help self-employed workers and another designed to provide additional payments to those who could not receive benefits through traditional resources for the unemployed.
The overall unemployment rate in the US, which had risen to 14% in April, has been declining since then and stood at 6.7% in November. Last week, applications for unemployment benefits in the United States fell to 803,000, a still very high level that reflects the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, which has already left 18.7 million cases and more than 330,000 deaths. in the country
With information from Efe and Afp *
