President Trump ready to send out more stimulus checks

Yesterday I wrote about the bad news regarding the negotiations taking place for the next stimulus package.

In a nutshell, negotiations have all but come to a halt between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and the Senate has even departed on their scheduled recess now.

This doesn’t mean that an agreement can’t be made before they return but there are talks about these negotiations getting pushed out until the end of September.

So it’s definitely concerning that an agreement has not been finalized yet.

With negotiations stalling, it looks like the president is ramping up his support for getting stimulus checks out to the public.

In a series of tweets, he reiterated his support for a number of measures still awaiting approval.

He also had something to say about Democrats.

First, President Trump stated that the Treasury is ready to send direct payments to Americans but that Democrats are holding up the process.

“I have directed @stevenmnuchin1 to get ready to send direct payments ($3,400 for family of four) to all Americans. DEMOCRATS ARE HOLDING THIS UP!”

He also mentioned that additional PPP payments to small businesses are ready to go out.

“I am ready to have @USTreasury and @SBA send additional PPP payments to small businesses that have been hurt by the ChinaVirus. DEMOCRATS ARE HOLDING THIS UP!”

And finally, he even stated that he’s ready to send more money to states and local governments to help save jobs for essential services like police, firefighters, first responders, and teachers.

And once again, he mentioned that Democrats are holding this whole thing up.

“I am ready to send more money to States and Local governments to save jobs for Police, Fire Fighters, First Responders, and Teachers. DEMOCRATS ARE HOLDING THIS UP!”

One of the biggest reasons why an agreement has not been made is that both sides cannot agree on the overall price tag of the next stimulus package.

Democrats came in hot with a package value that around $3 trillion while Republicans proposed something closer to $1 trillion.

Democrats thought that Republicans would be willing to meet somewhere in the middle around $2 trillion but that does not seem to be the case.

In addition to the overall price tag, there are disagreements about unemployment benefits, state and local aid, USPS funding/mail-in voting, etc.

It’s encouraging to see that the president has the treasury department apparently locked and loaded and ready to send out more direct payments as well as more funding for other dire needs.

I’m not buying that this is all on Democrats though.

Both sides are responsible for the stalling and there is a sizable group of Republicans who oppose any type of additional aid so this is definitely a two-sided problem.

Related

Stimulus package negotiations falling apart

Stimulus update: Trump claims deal “not going to happen”

Stimulus checks may not come until September