Trump Demands Changes to Coronavirus Relief Bill,
Calling It a ‘Disgrace’
The president sought bigger checks for Americans and a
bill that dealt more specifically with pandemic relief.
“It’s called the Covid relief bill, but it has almost
nothing to do with Covid,” President Trump said in a video posted online on
Tuesday.
By Luke
Broadwater and Alan Rappeport
Dec. 22,
2020
WASHINGTON
— President Trump on Tuesday evening threatened to derail months of bipartisan
work in Congress to deliver $900 billion in coronavirus relief to a country
battered by the pandemic, demanding checks to Americans that are more than
three times as much as those in the bill, which he called a “disgrace.”
The
president, who has been preoccupied with the baseless claim that the election
was stolen from him, seized on congressional leaders’ decision to pass the
relief bill by combining it with a broader spending plan to fund government
operations and the military. That spending plan includes routine provisions
like foreign aid and support for Washington institutions like the Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian.
But Mr.
Trump portrayed such spending items as “wasteful and unnecessary” additions to
the coronavirus legislation.
“It’s
called the Covid relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with Covid,” Mr.
Trump said in a video posted online. “Congress found plenty of money for
foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests while sending the bare
minimum to the American people.”
“I am
asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to
$2,000,” he added.
Speaker
Nancy Pelosi of California, who had been pressing for similarly sized checks,
welcomed Mr. Trump’s intervention.
“Republicans
repeatedly refused to say what amount the President wanted for direct checks.
At last, the President has agreed to $2,000 — Democrats are ready to bring this
to the Floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!” she wrote on
Twitter.
House
Democrats planned to bring up the $2,000 payments for a vote by unanimous
consent on Thursday, said an aide who was familiar with the proposal.
In recent
weeks, congressional leaders and a bipartisan group of moderates have worked
around the clock to deliver a relief package aimed at saving businesses from
closure, funding distribution of coronavirus vaccines and providing
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. with a stable economy when he takes office
in January.
The $900
billion relief package revived supplemental unemployment benefits for millions
of Americans at $300 a week for 11 weeks and provided for a round of $600
direct payments to adults and children. Republican and Democratic leaders
hailed the bill as a badly needed stopgap measure until a new Congress can
convene next year to consider providing more stimulus.
The bill
passed with an overwhelming, veto-proof margin.
“Help is on
the way,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority
leader.
But Mr.
Trump, who sat out the negotiations, demanded on Tuesday that the government
distribute much larger direct payments, despite opposition to such spending
from Senate Republicans.
Senator
Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, enlisted the president in the
Democrats’ push to get larger coronavirus relief checks to Americans next year.
“Trump
needs to sign the bill to help people and keep the government open,” he wrote
on Twitter, “and we’re glad to pass more aid Americans need. Maybe Trump can
finally make himself useful and get Republicans not to block it again.”
The
president’s move surprised even senior administration officials on Tuesday
night and represented an embarrassment for his top economic lieutenant,
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who helped negotiate the agreement with
Congress and applauded the passage of the bill on Tuesday.
“We are
fully committed to ensuring that hardworking Americans get this vital support
as quickly as possible and to further strengthening our economic recovery,” Mr.
Mnuchin said in a statement on Tuesday in which he thanked Mr. Trump for his
leadership.
In a CNBC
interview on Monday, Mr. Mnuchin said, “It was a great birthday present for me
to have Congress pass this today.”
He had said
hundreds of dollars in direct payments authorized by the bill could begin
reaching individual Americans as early as next week.
A
spokeswoman for Mr. Mnuchin also cited his role in the negotiations earlier on
Tuesday, noting that he had participated in 190 calls about the legislation
between Dec. 14 and Dec. 20 that included the president, Treasury staff members
and congressional leaders. During the talks, Mr. Mnuchin pushed for bigger
direct payments on behalf of the president in exchange for cutting supplemental
unemployment benefits.
Current and
former administration officials speculated on Tuesday evening that Mr. Trump
did not like the narrative that he had been sidelined from the negotiations and
that calling for higher direct payments was a political move to please his
base.
In order to
pass the bill before Christmas and hasten its enactment, congressional leaders
combined the relief bill with the $1.4 trillion year-end spending bill to fund
the government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. That bill also
served as a vehicle to pass myriad new policies, such as the establishment of
two Smithsonian museums, a ban on surprise medical bills and a restoration of
Pell grants for incarcerated students.
But the
voluminous combined bill — weighing in at 5,593 pages — and the speed with
which it was passed on Monday drew criticism from both the left and the right,
even as most in Congress voted for the legislation without having the time to
fully read it.
Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, likened the rushed vote on so
many unread measures to “hostage-taking,” and Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of
Texas, wrote on Twitter that it was “ABSURD.”
Questions
about some of the provisions in the legislation that aided other countries were
also raised on “Fox & Friends,” one of Mr. Trump’s favorite morning news
programs, on Tuesday. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and
a Trump ally, defended a measure in the bill that would send aid money to
Pakistan in an interview on the show: “Pakistan is a place I really worry
about.”
Besides
rebuking lawmakers for sending money to other countries, Mr. Trump also
criticized a provision in the relief bill that would allow some family members
of undocumented immigrants to claim benefits. He also said a measure that would
allow business expenses at restaurants to be deducted for two years was
insufficient and called for it to be extended for a longer, unspecified, period
of time.
In a tirade
on Twitter on Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump also repeated his baseless claims that
he lost the election because of widespread fraud. He also lashed out at the No.
2 Republican in the Senate, John Thune of South Dakota, who told reporters in
the Capitol this week that the president’s plans to try to overturn the will of
the electorate through a congressional vote were not going anywhere.
“I mean, in
the Senate it would go down like a shot dog,” Mr. Thune said. “And I just don’t
think it makes a lot of sense to put everybody through this when you know what
the ultimate outcome is going to be.”
In
response, Mr. Trump called Mr. Thune a “RINO” — Republican in name only — and
“Mitch’s boy” and said he should “just let it play out. South Dakota doesn’t
like weakness. He will be primaried in 2022, political career over!!!”
Democrats
in Congress seemed to be enjoying the Republican-on-Republican attacks.
“If his
major concern is he wants $2,000 relief checks, I’m sure we can accommodate his
desires,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and a member
of Ms. Pelosi’s leadership team. “On the Democratic side, we have been pushing
for a much larger package for months.”
Should Mr.
Trump veto the bill after sitting out negotiations, Mr. Raskin said, it would
be a “ludicrous way to run government, but it’s a fitting end to his
presidency.”
Luke
Broadwater covers Congress. He was the lead reporter on a series of
investigative articles at the Baltimore Sun that won a Pulitzer Prize and a
George Polk Award in 2020. @lukebroadwater
Alan Rappeport
is an economic policy reporter, based in Washington. He covers the Treasury
Department and writes about taxes, trade and fiscal matters in the era of
President Trump. He previously worked for The Financial Times and The
Economist. @arappeport
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