Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wants a second round of direct payments to Americans as the economy continues to roil in the wake of t...
Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wants a second round of direct payments to Americans as the economy continues to roil in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The president told Fox Business Network in an interview Wednesday afternoon that he wants the second round of stimulus checks to be even bigger than the first, which included $1,200 checks to all Americans who made less than $75,000 in 2019.
'I do, I support it, but it has to be done properly,' Trump told Fox Business host Blake Burman. 'I support actually larger numbers than the Democrats.'
'I want the money getting to people to be larger so they can spend it,' he continued. 'I want the money to get there quickly and in a non-complicated fashion.'
Trump added that any legislation needs to include incentives for Americans to go back to work – setting him up for a clash with Democrats in Congress over unemployment benefits.
Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wants another round of stimulus checks for Americans, but wants the aount to be 'larger' than last time 'so they can spend it'
The president told Fox Business' Blake Burman that he wants more benefits than Democrats, but claimed he wanted 'incentives' for people to stop collecting bolstered unemployment and go back to work
'We want to create a very great incentive to work,' Trump asserted. 'So, we're working on that and I'm sure we'll all come together.'
A phase four stimulus package has yet to pass through Congress.
Unemployment levels skyrocketed as shutdowns began spreading nationwide as the coronavirus threat became greater and case numbers continued to increase.
The U.S. experienced its highest unemployment level by millions than had ever been recorded since the inception of the program.
Some Republican critics claim the jobless levels were bolstered further by those who made more money on unemployment, with benefit increases passed by Congress as part of phase one stimulus package, than they were making when they had their jobs.
Trump's remarks indicate the administration will oppose an effort by Democrats in Congress to renew a $600 supplement to weekly jobless benefits set to expire at the end of July that was contained in earlier coronavirus relief legislation.
Many Republicans have argued that the supplemental benefit encourages workers to remain unemployed and they would prefer to provide a benefit for workers returning to the job.
Trump said the structure of the last round of financial aid to struggling Americans created a disincentive for people to return to work.
'They wanted to make it too complicated. Also, it was an incentive not to go to work,' the president said of previous relief packages, which included additional money for unemployment benefits. 'You'd make more money if you don't go to work.'
The first round of stimulus checks were for the amount of $1,200 for every American adult making less than $75,000
'That's not what the country is all about. And people didn't want that,' he asserted. 'They wanted to go to work. But it didn't make sense because they make more money if they didn't.'
'And so we don't want to have that. We want to have people get out. And we want we want to create a tremendous incentive for people to want to go back to work,' he said.
Administration officials have said they will calibrate their response in terms of further stimulus based on economic data set to roll in over the next couple of weeks. Negotiations over another relief bill are not expected to pick up until Congress returns from a break for the July 4 Independence Day holiday.
Trump told Fox Business he would meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a fellow Republican, later on Wednesday to discuss the stimulus package.
No comments