WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump capitulated to Congressional pressure Sunday night and I signed the pandemic aid bill which had called a disgrace earlier in the week. The executive’s surrender prevented a government shutdown and released $ 900 billion in stimulus funds to the economy, including a $ 600 aid payment that Trump and many Democratic lawmakers deemed insignificant, but the best conservative Republicans would accept since fiscal point of view.
Trump maintained by signing the bill that he will continue to push for the payment of $ 2,000 and for the elimination of what he says are unnecessary expenses, including some foreign aid articles, while agreeing to pleas that for now $ 600 is better than nothing for desperate Americans, many of whom are facing shortages of basic food and eviction from rental properties.
“I am signing this bill to restore unemployment benefits, stop evictions, provide rental assistance, add money for PPP, return our airline workers to work, add substantially more money for vaccine distribution, and much more. more, “Trump said, adding that he will send back to Congress a” red version “of the bill that calls for the elimination of wasteful spending.
Budget allocation and spending are largely a congressional prerogative and Trump does not have individual line veto power, so the president’s populist stance only allowed critical programs to lapse and delayed aid for millions of unemployed Americans. Democrats pounced on Trump, accusing him of causing anxiety and hardship to Americans that they said is “collateral damage to their political games,” even as they backed his demand for a $ 2,000 aid payment.
“The House will pass a bill to give Americans checks for $ 2,000. Then, I will move to pass it in the Senate. No Democrat will oppose it. Will the Senate Republicans do it?” asked the Senate Democratic leader Chuck schumer, after his home counterpart Nancy pelosi He said he would introduce independent legislation Monday to increase direct paychecks to $ 2,000, and urged Trump to ask Republicans to back it.
The overhead bill, of which the stimulus package is part, also contains many foreign aid items and so-called “pig barrel” appropriations that typically funnel money to legislators’ favorite projects and priorities. Among those belonging to the subcontinent is an allocation of $ 25 million to promote democracy and gender studies in Pakistan which has become a symbol of wasteful spending priorities.
The political fight in Washington It comes even as President Trump continues to lose the support of key allies who look beyond January 20 when he has to resign unless he succeeds in torpedoing the normal transfer of power as set out in the constitution. Over the weekend, a prominent journalist who had supported him for a long time pointed out that it was over for Trump.
“For almost 4 years I have supported @realDonaldTrump, who was attacked by left-wing cretins who conjured up the deception of Russia to ruin his presidency. He prevailed nonetheless. Sadly, he lost a hotly contested election. Shit. However, since then he has behaved like a so-called frat boy, “Geraldo Rivera tweeted.
Trump was also abandoned by his longtime sentinel, the New York Post, which ran a scathing editorial calling his attempt to reverse the election an “undemocratic coup” and characterizing its editors in this effort, former NSA Mike Flynn and his lawyer Sidney Powell, “crazy” and “traitor”.
“We understand, Mr. President, that you are angry that you lost. But continuing down this path is ruinous,” the Post editorial said, adding: “You had every right to investigate the elections. But let’s be clear: those efforts were not have found nothing. ”
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