When 74-year-old President Donald Trump announced Dec. 22 he’d veto the long-awaited Covid-19 relief bill, he did so because $600 direct payments to individuals was inadeaqute. Considering the extent of the recessions for nationwide lockdowns, you’d think Congress would have thought through the Covid-19 relief bill more carefully. Senate Republicans, led by 78-year-old Senate Major Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) didn’t want to include any direct payments to U.S. citizens, finally settling Dec. 22 on $600 payments. Trump’s surprise move threw House and Senate Republican for a loop, demanding the House and Senate approve $2000 in direct payments. Direct payments in the March 27 CARES Act gave individuals $1,200 payments, $2,400 for couples and up to $4,000 for families. But this time around, the House and Senate GOP were not so generous, agreeing to $600.
Responding to Trump’s request for $2,000 payments, 80-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) responded to the request of $2,000 direct payments, saying she would convene the House on Monday, Dec. 28, to advance a separate bill calling for $2,000 payments. Pelosi asked Trump to sign the current bill with $600 payments, saying that the supplemental amount would be taken up on Monday. Trump has yet to signal whether he will sign the current bill that gives billions in foreign aid to cash-strapped Latin American countries. “On Monday, I will bring the House back to session, where we will hold a recorded vote on our stand-alone bill to increase economic impact payments to $2,000. To vote against this bill is to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny them relief they need,” Pelosi said. There’s no indication that a stand-alone bill would pass both Houses.
Trump’s demand to increase direct payments to $2,000 was his last-ditch attempt to stick in to both parties, publicly rebuking them for spending billions on foreign aid. Trump wanted the public to know that lawmakers have more concern for foreign aid than the plight of cash-strapped American workers. But Democrats had no desire to cut foreign aid or any other pet projects, prompting Pelosi to ask Trump to sign the bill. Without cutting back on the profligate spending in the first bill, Trump isn’t likely to sign any supplemental bill to increase direct payments. Pelsosi knows that in any negotiation, you don’t get everything, certainly not all the Latin American aid plus a bevy of projects that have no value to average Americans. So, if Pelosi really wanted increase direct payments to American workers, she’d have to give something back on her pet projects and foreign aid.
Republicans tried to amend the bill to reduce Democrat—backed foreign aid payments, something they were not willing to do. “We’re not going to let the government shut down,” said House Majority leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), referring to the omnibus bill that contained both the $900 billion stimulus bill plus a $1.4 trillion spending bill to keep the government funded until next September. “We are considering options and what steps we will take,” Hoyer said, know that the GOP won’t play ball on increasing direct payments unless Democrats revisit extravagant aid to Latin American countries. Pelosi knows that her supplemental bill to increase direct payments to $2,000 to individuals will go no where unless she’s willing to cut payments to foreign aid. Pelosi shows why Trump had so much trouble dealing with her unwillingness to negotiate in good faith.
Despite her advanced age, Pelosi has shown she’s still the master manipulator, certainly to a more than receptive media. “On Monday, I will bring the House back to session, where we will hold a recorded vote on our stand-alone bill to increase economic impact payments to $2,000 . . .” Pelosi said. Pelsoi knows that there’s zero consensus over in the GOP caucus about increasing direct payments unless there’s a corresponding reductions in payments to Latin American countries. “Hopefully, by then the president will have already signed the bipartisan and bicameral legislation to keep government open and to deliver coronavirus relief,” Pelosi said. What’s hard to figure out that if the GOP sees no concessions on foreign aid, they’re not going to approve $2,000 payments to cash-strapped Americans. Trump should veto the current bill and let the burden of providing economic relief fall on the Biden administration.
Playing with the public, Pelosi knows that without concessions on foreign aid, Trump isn’t likely to move ahead with $2,000 direct payments. Busy issuing pardons for a wide swath of convicted felons, Trump has tried to get justice on the Russian hoax where it wasn’t available to him in the courts. Pelos should stop grandstanding about jumping on Trump’s offer of bigger direct payments, knowing that it would only happen if she were interested in following up reallocating resources on the original bipartisan legislation. GOP House and Senate members would rework the numbers to offer at least $1,200 to ordinary citizens, as long as Pelosi was willing to cut the fat out of the bipartisan bill. Trump never offered bigger direct payments unless Pelosi was willing to let go of her pet projects and foreign aid. Since that’s not happening, Trump may just veto the bill, kicking the can to the Biden White House.
