Photo via @realDonaldTrump/Twitter, Office of the Speaker
December 23, 2020, 11:28 am
Donald Trump has threatened to veto the 2021 spending bill that includes the second COVID-19 relief package, saying that $600 survival payments are not enough and demanding $2000 per person. He released a video statement Tuesday calling the negotiated bill a “disgrace” after many people trashed the $600 checks and complained about various miscellaneous items found in the larger budget bill.
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Of course, Trump may have an ulterior motive for this sudden move.
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“I’m also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package,” he said. “And maybe that administration will be me.”
Much of the “pork” Trump and others have complained about is not part of the COVID-19 relief package, but fairly standard parts of the larger 2021 budget bill, though we’re not sure the part about the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama was necessary. Or the hundreds of billions of dollars in giveaways to the rich and beefing up a hyper-bloated military.
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Regardless, Democrats have opted to call Trump’s bluff by jumping on board the $2000 idea, reminding him and everyone as often as they can that this is the amount they wanted in the bill in the first place. They are now challenging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has delayed any new COVID relief bill for several months, and the rest of the Senate Republicans to follow their president’s lead.
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In addition to offering to tag on the amendment written by The Squad and their progressive supporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling for unanimous consent from the Senate, which could get this bill passed before Christmas.
The only problem with this is that “unanimous” of course means that one single stubborn Republican could deny all eligible individuals a check for $2000. We’re looking at you, Rand Paul.
Either way, Trump has kicked off a rare semi-bipartisan movement, with even Lindsey Graham offering to get on board for the price of ending Section 230 liability protections for social media companies. Of course, with these protections removed, Twitter would likely have no choice but to ban Trump and other Republicans for saying so many things that could potentially open them up to lawsuits.
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That’s what we in the business call a win-win.
If the budget bill is not passed and signed by Trump soon, the nation will endure another government shutdown like the record-long 35-day fiasco the outgoing president dragged us through in 2018 to 2019 over border wall funding. They have until December 29 to get this done, and adding a new amendment to the bill at this point might take too much time.
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It would have been nice if Trump had called for this sooner, but he’s nothing if not a master disrupter.
Another option is for congress to push the existing bill through and override Trump’s veto, which seems very possible based on how many voted in favor of the bill.
*First Published: December 23, 2020, 11:28 am
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