With the number of coronavirus cases in the United States now over 19 million, and deaths nearly 333,000, and counting, President Donald Trump has added another black mark to his rapidly dwindling legacy, if you want to call it that.
By refusing to sign a bipartisan Congressional COVID-19 relief bill that would have extended unemployment benefits to over 12 million people and given stimulus checks of $600 to millions more, Trump has made a grave and devastating situation even worse for the American people.
If Trump for one minute thought he was cleaning up his rusting image with his followers by demanding $2,000 stimulus checks instead of the $600 approved by both the Democrats and GOP, he is sadly mistaken. Congress is already waiting to approve more stimulus money for Americans when Joe Biden takes over the reins of government on January 20.
Bernie Sanders describes Trump as “pathologically narcissistic,” calls on him to sign the stimulus bill “right now” and adds, “then we can immediately deal with the $2,000” checks Trump has called for.
“It is really insane,” Sanders says. pic.twitter.com/MJTJZEWUMe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 27, 2020
Besides that, Trump is a day late and a dollar short. “He should have weighed in eight months ago,” Larry Hogan, the governor of Maryland, said on CNN’s State of the Union in response to Trump’s claim that he would only sign if the relief package included $2,000 in direct payments instead of the $600 agreed, reports The Guardian.
“You don’t get everything you want, even if you’re president of the United States,” Senator Pat Toomey said. The Pennsylvania Republican voted for the bill and wants Trump to sign it, in spite of his own opposition to parts of it, USA Today reports.
“I understand he wants to be remembered for advocating for big checks, but the danger is he’ll be remembered for chaos and misery, and erratic behavior,” Toomey said.
BREAKING — After letting unemployment payments lapse by refusing to sign the COVID/omnibus bill last night, the president is back on his golf course this morning.
A true let them eat Ho-Hos moment.December 27, 2020
“It’s going to be difficult if the president doesn’t sign this bill,” said Earl McCarthy, a Georgia father of four who lost his job as a sales representative. He’s looking at having no income come the second week of January, per the Associated Press.
What does all this chaos and absurdity mean? The Washington Post writes that “Trump’s final economic act while in office could be to block an emergency relief package negotiated by his treasury secretary even as the U.S. economy is battered by a surge in coronavirus cases and a new wave of shutdowns.”
