President Donald Trump on Saturday called again for $2,000 relief checks to be part of the COVID relief bill that will be considered this ...
President Donald Trump on Saturday called again for $2,000 relief checks to be part of the COVID relief bill that will be considered this week by Congress.
Congress last week approved a bill that would pay $600 to eligible Americans. After the bill’s passage, Trump denounced the legislation as wasting too much money on special interests and not giving enough to the American people.
Congress will be in session this week. House Democrats have said they support Trump’s call for higher checks to individuals, but the increase has met a divided reaction among Republicans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will schedule a full floor vote Monday on the proposal, according to Fortune. As of Sunday, it was unclear whether the Senate would follow suit.
On Saturday, Trump called the current size of relief checks “measly.”
“I simply want to get our great people $2000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill. Also, stop the billions of dollars in ‘pork,'” he tweeted.
Trump tweeted further about the bill.
Trump’s call for increased payments met with differing legislative reactions.
“There’s been some apparent misunderstanding about what’s in the regular appropriating bill and what’s in the COVID relief bill, and generally the regular appropriating bill includes things the administration asked for. It took us a long time to get to where we are. I think reopening that bill would be a mistake,” said Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, according to Newsweek.
“The best way out of this is for the president to sign the bill, and I still hope that’s what he decides,” he said.
Others disagreed.
Amid the debate, the president also re-tweeted a video he released last week that attacked the legislation on which he said the 5,000-plus page bill is “called the COVID Relief Bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID.”
Trump then said the money goes everywhere but where it was needed the most.
“This bill contains $85.5 million for assistance to Cambodia, $134 million to Burma, $1.3 billion for Egypt and the Egyptian military, which will go out and buy almost exclusively Russian military equipment. $25 million for democracy and gender programs in Pakistan, $505 million to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. $40 million for the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, which is not even open for business. $1 billion for the Smithsonian and an additional $154 million for the National Gallery of Art. Likewise, these facilities are essentially not open,” he said.
Trump criticized the bill for giving $1,800 each to the family members of illegal immigrants.
“This is far more than the Americans are given. Despite all of this wasteful spending and much more, the $900 billion package provides hardworking taxpayers with only $600 each in relief payments, and not enough money is given to small businesses,” he said.
Trump then turned to his core message — one that resonated with many lawmakers: Americans need more cash in the bill.
“Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it. It wasn’t their fault, it was China’s fault. Not their fault,” Trump said. “I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple,” he said.
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