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Unemployment benefits for millions of struggling Americans will expire at midnight unless US President Donald Trump signs a year-end Covid-19 relief and spending bill that had been considered a deal. closed before his sudden objections.
Trump’s refusal to sign the bipartisan package as he demands larger Covid-19 aid checks and complains of “hog” spending could also force a shutdown of the federal government when the money runs out at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, in the middle of a pandemic.
Washington has staggered since Trump threw the package into limbo after it had already garnered broad approval in both houses of Congress and after the White House assured Republican leaders that the president would support it.
The lockdowns in Democratic-controlled states are absolutely ruining so many people’s lives, far more than the damage the China virus would do. Cases in California have increased despite the closure, but Florida and others are open and doing well. Common sense please!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2020
Instead, he has attacked the bill’s plan to provide $ 600 (£ 442) Covid-19 aid checks to most Americans, insisting that it should be $ 2,000 (£ 1,474).
House Republicans were quick to reject that idea during a rare Christmas Eve session, but Trump was not swayed.
“I just want our great people to get $ 2000, instead of the measly $ 600 that’s now on the bill,” Trump tweeted from Palm Beach, where he spends the Christmas holidays. “Also, stop the billions of dollars in ‘pork’.”
President-elect Joe Biden called on Trump to sign the bill immediately, as two federal programs that provide unemployment assistance are set to expire on Saturday.
“It is the day after Christmas and millions of families do not know if they will be able to make ends meet due to President Donald Trump’s refusal to sign a financial aid bill approved by Congress with an overwhelming bipartisan majority,” said the Mr. Biden said.
He accused Trump of an “abdication of responsibility” that will have “devastating consequences.”
“I’ve been talking to people who are afraid that they will be thrown out of their homes over the Christmas holidays, and it still could be if we don’t sign this bill,” said US Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan. Democrat.
Lauren Bauer, an economics fellow at the Brookings Institution, has estimated that 11 million people would lose aid from the programs immediately without additional aid; Millions more would exhaust other unemployment benefits in a few weeks.
The bill awaiting signature by Trump would also trigger a weekly federal supplement of $ 300 (£ 221) to unemployment payments.
The president has been spending his final days in office playing golf and tweeting angrily as he refuses to accept his loss to Biden in the Nov.3 election.
I just want our great people to be 00, instead of the measly 0 that’s now on the bill. Also, stop the billions of dollars in “pig.”
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2020
On Saturday, he again lashed out at members of his own party for not joining his quest to try to overturn the election results with unsubstantiated claims of massive election fraud that have been repeatedly rejected by the courts.
“If a Democratic presidential candidate had a rigged and stolen election, with evidence of such acts at a level never seen before, Democratic senators would consider it an act of war and fight to the death,” he criticized.
He also said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Republicans “just want to let it go. DONT FIGHT!”
In the first 100 days of my administration, we will:
– Ask all Americans to mask themselves
– Administer 100 million vaccine injections
– Reopen most schoolsWe will contain the virus and return to our lives.
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 22, 2020
Trump also lashed out at the Supreme Court, the Justice Department and the FBI, as he appeared to encourage his supporters to meet in Washington on January 6, the day the US Congress counts the electoral college vote, despite a similar event last month escalated into violence, with several people stabbed in the streets of the capital.
In addition to freezing unemployment benefits, Trump’s inaction on the bill would lead to the expiration of eviction protections and suspend a new round of subsidies for the hardest hit businesses, restaurants and theaters, along with money to help. to schools and vaccinations. distribution.
The relief is also attached to a US government funding bill of $ 1.4 trillion (£ 1 trillion) to keep the federal government running.
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