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meA cozy family gathering under the Christmas tree? Attend a church service? Are you kidding? You’re serious when you say that. Donald Trump spoke out against family and church on the first holiday of Christmas, and only in the United States. In the morning he left his property in Mar-a-lago, Florida, and drove to Trump International Golf Course, just a few minutes’ drive away. It wasn’t even 10 a.m. on December 25 when Donald Trump arrived at his golf club. He stayed there for more than four hours.
So even though Trump spent Christmas Day like almost every last weekend, he offended his own party this week like never before in his nearly four-year tenure. Once again, the incumbent president flaunts his most loyal followers, shaming them and confronting them with decisions in which they can only lose.
Even on Christmas Eve you could see how the Great Old Party (GOP) despaired of the latest antics of its president: the House of Representatives met in the morning for a so-called pro forma meeting. Republicans avoided tangible embarrassment here by blocking a vote requested by Democrats. For now at least.
What happened? After months of negotiations, Democrats and Republicans recently agreed to a $ 900 billion crown aid package, the first since March. Provides a one-time $ 600 check for almost all Americans. The federal government is also increasing state unemployment benefits by $ 300 per week for now.
Under Trump, the national debt rose to more than $ 27 trillion
There was nothing that Democrats and Republicans, Congress and Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed other than the amount of the lump sum. It went back and forth for months. He was almost relieved that Congress passed the aid package with an unusually large, nonpartisan majority. 92 senators voted in favor, only six against. The House of Representatives voted equally clearly. It’s a consensus that was once common in the US, but has become extremely rare under Trump.
Finance Minister Mnuchin praised the Corona stimulus package through the green clover. Republicans in Congress saw this as proof that Trump also welcomed the 5,593-page legislative package. Republicans reacted correspondingly annoyed to horrified when Trump called the law an “embarrassment” and announced that he would not sign it. “Is the president aware that unemployment benefits will expire the day after Christmas?” Asked Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, one of the negotiators.
Instead of the $ 600 lump sum negotiated by his own Secretary of the Treasury, Trump asked for an increase to $ 2,000 for singles (and $ 4,000 for couples). This measure would cost another $ 350 billion.
Trump has always been in a spending mood; during his presidency the national debt rose to more than $ 27 trillion, more than 100 percent of economic output, a record. Also, perhaps the most glaring contradiction to the 2016 election campaign loudspeakers’ promise to pay off all national debts.
Trump makes life for his people even harder than it already is
Republicans are turning, at least rhetorically, against an overwhelmed state. For its Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, it was important that the $ 900 billion aid package be below the symbolic $ 1 trillion limit. At one point, Democrats had asked for a package worth nearly $ 3 trillion, but Republicans blew them away.
After Trump’s $ 200 lawsuit, the demo cards reacted quickly: They immediately welcomed Trump’s proposal, knowing full well that their party friends weren’t thinking about it. Nancy Pelosi, the power-conscious Democratic spokeswoman for the House of Representatives, immediately announced a vote on the lump sum payment of $ 2,000. Republicans should have a choice: vote against their own convictions (for $ 2,000) or against Trump (against $ 2,000). That vote was blocked by Republicans on Christmas Eve. Pelosi is planning a fresh start on Monday.
McConnell, the powerful Republican Majority Leader in the Senate, is remarkably calm. His relationship with Trump breaks down after he recently, after much hesitation, recognized the legitimacy of the presidential election and congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his victory. Trump has been falsely claiming since November 3 that he won. Spreading unsubstantiated claims and half-truths, he ruled dozens of times in court. That also presents Republicans with a dilemma: recognize reality or follow Trump?
But Trump is making life for his people a good three weeks before the end of his term than he already is. On Wednesday, for example, he vetoed the defense budget of $ 740 billion. Why? Among other things, he wants to prevent military installations from losing their names after prominent Confederates from the civil war. Trump also called the defense budget law a “gift to China and Russia.”
There are no nice days for Republicans between Christmas and New Years
Like Corona’s aid package, the defense budget was approved with broad consensus. 43 of the 52 Republican senators had voted in favor. With his veto, Trump now joins critics of the defense budget like left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders, albeit for entirely different reasons. Along with twelve other Democrats and Republicans, he had voted against it.
To enact the law against Trump’s veto, a two-thirds majority is required in each chamber. But how are Republicans supposed to vote here? Should they suddenly vote against the budget, which they still considered good on December 11, just to please Trump? Or should they, along with the Democrats, reject the veto of the incumbent president?
The House of Representatives wants to vote on Monday, the Senate on Tuesday. It will not be a pleasant day for Republicans between Christmas and New Years. the disabled The president, who is due to evacuate the White House on January 20, mercilessly brings his own people in front of him.
A failure of the Pentagon budget would be the first in recent history. The adoption of National defense authorization law it is “absolutely necessary for our national security and our soldiers,” says Senate Armed Services Committee chairman James Inhofe, Republican. Meanwhile: his attempt to prevent Trump from being vetoed was unsuccessful. Democrat Nancy Pelosi views Trump’s veto as an “impressive act of cruelty” that hurts soldiers, endangers security and undermines the political will of the nonpartisan Congress.
A delicate situation for two activists in Georgia
Trump’s appeals are particularly sensitive and politically dangerous for two of his particularly loyal party friends in the Senate, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. The two are in the midst of an election campaign to defend their two seats against Democratic rivals in a runoff in Georgia on January 5. Still, it’s not easy, as Georgia, once conservative, recently voted for Biden with a majority.
But now Loeffler and Perdue, who have so far not even expressed the slightest criticism of Trump, have to show their colors. Do you defend your own voting behavior in the Senate? Or is he following Trump in criticizing his own vote? Loeffler’s challenger, Democrat Raphael Warnock, recorded on Twitter: If Loeffler, who praises herself for having supported Trump’s plans “100 percent” in the Senate, “why doesn’t she support aid checks? $ 2,000? “
The president has been known to brutally and publicly punish those who do not follow him unconditionally (even if it is his legendary actions from today to tomorrow). Trump is holding back in Georgia anyway, he just held a rally there. No more concert has been announced and voting will take place in less than two weeks.
Georgia’s election is anything but a regional vote. If the two Republicans lose their seats to Democratic rivals, their Senate majority is lost. Democrats and Republicans would each have 50 seats in the second house of Congress in this case. In the event of a tie, the vice president decides. As of January 20 it will be a woman, namely Democrat Kamala Harris.
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