President Donald Trump said on Friday that he has $ 3,400 checks ready to go out to American families, but accused Democrats of holding a deal in talks that were broken a week ago.
“I have appointed the Secretary of the Treasury to be ready and send direct payments, $ 3,400 for a family of four to all Americans – Democrats stop this,” Trump said in an earlier tweet.
He said he would ‘personally not’ sit ‘with the Democrats because they continue to want federal dollars to go to state and city budgets that were cash because of the pandemic.
‘Cuz they want $ 1 trillion to go to their friends who do bad jobs that cities and states do and they do it very badly,’ he said in a White House press release.
President Donald Trump said at Friday’s briefing that he had “directed” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to prepare $ 3,400 checks for American families, but needed a deal to get through with Democrats before they could go out.
President Trump blames Democrats – including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (left) and House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (right) – for the hold-up, though also refuses to meet with her in person
President Trump made a similar announcement in a tweet earlier Friday, urging Democrats to stay in control
In a series of tweets, he also offers some money to cities and states, but to specifically go to first responders
The president also said he was ready for the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration to send more money for Paycheck Protection Program to U.S. small businesses
“You know, most of our country is doing very well,” the president continued.
‘But if you look at Chicago, if you look at what’s happening in Illinois and New York and elsewhere economically and in other ways, it’s terrible – you look at Oregon,’ he added.
Earlier in his remarks, Trump said he would send money to state and local governments to “save jobs from our big police, our fighters, our first responders, our teachers.”
“It’s all ready to go, Democrats stop it,” Trump said again.
Instead of sitting down with Democratic leaders in Congress, Secretary of State Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows sent Capitol Hill for negotiations. Meadows was a former Republican House member from North Carolina.
The Republican-led Senate and Democratic-controlled House of Representatives went into an informal recession after last week’s negotiations ended with the parties $ 2 trillion apart.
However, the leaders of both parties said they could return their members with 24-hour notice if a deal arose.
At a news conference on Friday, Trump said he was ready to give Americans direct payments, such as rental assistance and money for small businesses, state and local governments.
“I’m waiting for the Democrats to make it right,” the president said. “Democrats stop that, right?”
Aides with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Speaker Chuck Schumer were not immediately available for comment.
Trump’s move came a day after he said he warned talks to prevent Democrats from providing more money for the Postal Service than state and local election officials who are struggling to prepare for November 3 elections during a pandemic.
On Friday, he signaled that he could approve funds for the Postal Service.
Last Saturday, Trump signed a series of executive measures on issues, including unemployment benefits that dismissed economists as too limited to have a significant effect on an economy hammered by the pandemic.
They have yet to be executed.
The $ 2 trillion gap between the Democrats ‘$ 3 trillion proposal and the Republicans’ $ 1 trillion gap covers wide gaps in funding for schools, which support state and local governments, and pay for unemployment.
A surge of more than $ 600-a-week in improved unemployment benefits, which expired on July 31, kept financial markets on edge as the department of commerce weakened more than expected growth in retail sales in July due to the spiral increase pandemic and the end of improved unemployment payments.
Unemployment payments helped increase consumer spending, according to Federal Reserve officials and economists.
Trump last Saturday only tried to deal with a memorandum proposing an additional $ 300 a week in unemployment, with states still paying claimants $ 100 a week, though economists doubt the effectiveness of the limited measure.
Meanwhile, the number of U.S. coronavirus infections approached 5.3 million on Friday, with deaths above 167,000.
U.S. stock prices fell earlier this week after Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Second Chamber member Pelosi revealed that no talks on coronavirus were planned.
Democrats offered to reduce their proposal by $ 1 trillion in negotiations with White House officials last week. The White House rejected the offer.
A Reuters / Ipsos poll published earlier this week found that Americans blamed both parties for the invasion.
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