Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin warned Democrats on Sunday that any legal challenge to President Trump’s recent executive orders would earn financial aid to millions of Americans, as he defends the movement to reduce federal unemployment benefits from $ 600 a week to $ 400. .
“We have removed all of these actions with the law firm,” Mnuchin told Fox News Sunday. “If the Democrats want to challenge us in court and hold unemployment benefits to those hard-working Americans who do not have a job because of a COVID, they will have a lot of explanations to do.”
Trump on Saturday signed executive orders to defer payroll taxes and replace a lower-paid unemployment benefit after negotiations with Congress over a new coronavirus rescue package collapsed.
The president’s order demands a maximum of $ 400 in payments each week, one-third less than the $ 600 people received. How many people would get the benefit and how long it might take to come were open questions.
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The previous unemployment benefit, which expired on August 1, was fully funded by Washington, but Trump is asking states to cover 25 percent now. He seeks to set up $ 44 billion in previously approved disaster relief to help states, but said it would be up to states to determine how much, if any, of it to fund so that the benefits can be even smaller.
Asked why the administration was reducing federal unemployment benefits, Mnuchin said it was “an honest compromise” and that the White House had offered to continue paying $ 600 a week, while they negotiate with Democrats. “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace goes on to say that the administration had offered to extend the $ 600 benefits by one week.
“Actually, we extended it to two weeks,” Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin also claimed that the proposed scaling up of Trump’s tax system would not lead to a reduction in payments for social security – an issue raised by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and other Democrats.
“The president does not want to damage these trust funds in any way, so they will be reimbursed as they always have in the past when we did these kinds of things,” Mnuchin said.
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Trump’s executive orders, which he signed Saturday from his country club in New Jersey, have been met with sharp opposition from Democrats, and even some Republicans, as unconstitutional and ultimately useless to Americans struggling financially during the pandemic of coronavirus.
The use of executive action drew criticism from Republican sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska. “The pen-and-phone theory of executive legislation is unconstitutional,” said Sasse, a member of the House Judiciary and Finance Panels. He added that Trump “does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the tax law. Under the Constitution, that power belongs to the American people who act through their members of Congress.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
