President Donald Trump, in a surprising Tuesday night tweet, called the $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill passed by Congress an unsuitable “disgrace.”
Trump urged lawmakers to make a number of changes to the measure, including bigger direct payments to individuals and families. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, agreed with his call for $2,000 payments.
Trump said stimulus checks should be $2,000 per person and $4,000 per couple. The president released this video on Twitter around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi retweeted Trump’s video address and said, “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!”
“Throughout the summer, Democrats cruelly blocked COVID relief legislation in an effort to advance their extreme, left-wing agenda, and influence the election,” Trump said. “Then, a few months ago, Congress started negotiations on a new package to get urgently-needed help to the American people. It’s taken forever,” said Trump.
“For example, among the more than 5,000 pages in this bill, which nobody in this Congress has read because of its length and complexity, it’s called the COVID Relief Bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID,” the president continued.
Some media outlets are reporting that Trump signaled a veto of this bill in its current form, which would be devastating to Americans who need it most. Our take on this is, if you listen to what he says, without bias, he is signaling that this ridiculous $600 payment will not be enough to truly help Americans and that the next administration will need to immediately pass additional COVID relief. He does add that the next administration, ‘may be him’.
Trump slammed Congress for handing out billions, of dollars to foreign countries and programs that aren’t related to the COVID crisis in the United States. These items pay actually not be in the COVID bill, but items that are listed in the fiscal spending bill. One would still have to question just how we can afford to hand out $1.3 billion to Egypt for their military, or $1 billion for the Smithsonian.
These items are:
- $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, D.C., “which is not even open for business.”
- $1 billion for the Smithsonian, “which is not even open,” and an additional $154 million for the National Gallery of Art
- $7 million for Reef Fish Management
- $25 million to combat Asian carp
- $2.5 million to count the number of amberjack fish in the Gulf of Mexico. “A provision to promote the breeding of fish in federal hatchers”
- $566 million for construction projects at the FBI
We will update this details unfold.