Stimulus Update: Trump Kills Covid-19 Relief Until After The Election
Story by Forbes
Written by Kelly Anne Smith
The stimulus negotiation marathon is (apparently) over.
After recent weeks of progress between White House negotiators and lawmakers in Congress, President Donald Trump announced on Twitter today that all negotiations are now off and a stimulus bill won’t be passed until after the November election.
Details on Trump’s Rejection of a Stimulus Package Deal
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump tweeted that he has officially “rejected” Democrat requests for a $2.2 trillion Covid-19 relief package. The tweet comes just days after he pressured lawmakers, from Walter Reed Medical Center where he was being treated for Covid-19, to pass a stimulus package.
But worse, Trump added that he has instructed his representatives to stop negotiations until immediately after the election. He said that “... immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Businesses.” He urged Senate Republicans to instead focus on their nomination of Amy Coney Barrett as the new Supreme Court Justice.
On Thursday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) released a statement in response to Trump’s actions, saying, “Clearly, the White House is in complete disarray. Sadly, they are rejecting the urgent warnings of Fed Chairman Powell today, that ‘Too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses.’”
Trump drawing stimulus negotiations to a screeching halt comes just 28 days before the November election, and at a time where the president’s image is in increasingly hot water.
The president has been under harsh scrutiny after his discharge from Walter Reed for taking his mask off while entering the White House, and putting his aides and surrounding workers in immediate danger of contracting a deadly virus that has claimed the lives of over 210,000 Americans.
The president’s actions, described as irresponsible by medical experts, are increasingly affecting public opinion. He trails Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden by a gaping 16 points nationally, according to the most recent CNN poll—his largest margin of any CNN poll conducted during the current election.
The stock market is also reacting to Trump throwing ice on stimulus negotiations—it plummeted just moments after he tweeted.
Trump’s moves are in opposition to what many experts advise, who say the economy is in dire need of Covid-19 related economic relief. Just today, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that the U.S. economy would face dire consequences if more relief isn’t passed soon.
“A long period of unnecessarily slow progress could continue to exacerbate existing disparities in our economy. That would be tragic, especially in light of our country's progress on these issues in the years leading up to the pandemic,” Powell said in a recent speech. He added that any policy action wouldn’t go to waste.
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