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The president of the United States threatens to veto the Corona aid package, which the Americans urgently await. It comes at an inopportune time for Republicans.
“The law is called the Covid Alleviation Act, but it has almost nothing to do with Covid” – President Donald Trump faces Congress.
Photo: Keystone
He was a ruffian that nobody expected. His impact on Washington late Tuesday night was just as great. the Corona aid program, in which the United States Congress had agreed after a tough fight, “is a shame, even a joke,” ranted President Donald Trump in a four-minute video that he distributed through the short message service Twitter.
Instead of generously supporting the nation’s citizens and businesses, parliament wasted money “on other states, lobbyists, and individual groups.” The US president announced that members of parliament and senators would have to fundamentally review the package and put a “usable” law on the table.
After Trump’s intervention, it is now completely uncertain whether and when Americans can count on the government’s help in fighting the economic fallout from the pandemic. The program, which was approved by Congress with a large majority, includes direct payments of up to $ 600 to US citizens, an increase in unemployment benefits and loans and grants for companies that do not want to fire.
Corona’s new aid package has a total volume of nearly $ 900 billion. Check shipping should start next week.
“The law is called the Covid Alleviation Act, but it has almost nothing to do with Covid.”
From the point of view of Trump, who stayed almost entirely on the sidelines of the development of the program, the expected one-time payment is too low. “I urge Congress to amend the law and increase the ridiculously low $ 600 to $ 2,000,” he said.
Trump also criticized that the package contained many payments to other countries and individual groups that had nothing to do with the fight against Corona. All this money would have to be removed from the program. “The law is called the Covid Alleviation Act, but it has almost nothing to do with Covid.”
Congress could revoke the veto
As is often the case in his four-year tenure, Trump mixed factual criticism with half-truths and falsehoods in his remarks. For example, it states that illegal immigrant families receive significantly more money than US citizens. The aforementioned payments to third countries such as Egypt and Pakistan are not part of the Covid package, but rather of the budget law that Congress voted in parallel.
What the president intends to do exactly now, he leaves open in his video. The veto would be possible against the aid package, which the Senate and House of Representatives could again revoke with two-thirds of the votes. Given the clear majorities with which both houses approved the program, at least it is not ruled out.
The pandemic has plunged many Americans into poverty: An aid organization is distributing food to those in need in Washington.
Photo: Keystone
However, many members of Congress have already left Washington believing that their work will be done before Christmas. In the worst case, government activities can even come to a halt a few days before New Year’s Eve because the current budget bridging law expires.
In many places on Wednesday there was a lot of speculation about what the president was aiming at with his threats. One reading is that a few weeks before the handover of official business to his successor Joe Biden, he wants to act again as the people’s tribune generating more money for citizens than the congressional elite is willing to give.
Division into loyalists and traitors
Other observers suspect that he primarily wants to punish former allies for their alleged disloyalty to him. In fact, dozens of Republican senators and MPs have recently acknowledged Biden’s victory in the presidential election, drawing Trump’s ire. Among them is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was currently the most powerful Republican in Congress and in charge of negotiating the Covid package.
With the division into loyalists and traitors, the president divides his party a few days before the important ones. Senate Elections in Georgia. There it will be decided on January 5 whether Democrats will have a voice in both houses of Congress as well as the White House in early 2023 or whether Republicans will at least retain their narrow majority in the Senate.
Trump obviously cares less than his own fate. Despite all the failed attempts to challenge his electoral defeat in court, he once again indicated in his speech that he wanted to remain in office. If there is no Corona package now, the next government will have to establish a program, he said, “and this next government could be me.”
Aid increased to $ 2,000
Democrats, who had already asked for higher direct payments to citizens for alleged high costs, but had failed due to resistance from Republicans, offered on Wednesday to decide to increase aid from $ 600 to $ 2,000 before New Year’s Eve.
Congressman Jamie Raskin said Trump vetoing it would be “grotesque” after he had previously refused to work on the package. On the other hand, “it would be the appropriate end to his presidency.”
The new Crown aid package aims to complement previous measures against the economic and social consequences of the pandemic. In March, Congress launched a gigantic economic program. At a volume of $ 2.2 trillion, it was the largest aid package in American history.
