Biden refers to Trump not signing COVID-19 relief bill as a presidential ‘abdication of responsibility’
Yesterday, President-elect Joe Biden released a statement encouraging Donald Trump – who is still the U.S. president until January 20, 2021 – to immediately sign and approve the COVID-19 relief bill sent down to him in his Mar-a-lago resort. In a strongly worded statement, Biden accused the current president of “abdicating his responsibility.”
According to The Hill, Biden reminded Trump that the COVID-19 relief bill, “contains provisions for small businesses and extended unemployment benefits as well as stimulus checks and that it could help struggling families experiencing the pandemic’s economic fallout during the holiday season.”
It is the day after Christmas, and millions of families don’t know if they’ll be able to make ends meet because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to sign an economic relief bill approved by Congress with an overwhelming and bipartisan majority.
This abdication of responsibility has devastating consequences. Today, about 10 million Americans will lose unemployment insurance benefits. In just a few days, government funding will expire, putting vital services and paychecks for military personnel at risk … ~ President-elect Joe Biden
As of this writing, there has been no word that Trump signed that relief bill. What we do know is that after the president’s team negotiated with the Democrats to come up with the bill in its current form, Trump went on video and threw a hissy fit saying that that he wouldn’t sign it, citing that the $600 payment to struggling Americans was a disgrace and that he objected to the pork in the bill. Also included in the relief package is funding for unemployment benefits and a ban on evictions.
Trump threw the massive Covid-19 relief and government funding bill into question on Tuesday when he threatened to veto the bill after it passed both chambers of Congress with strong majorities. ~ NBC News
Trump’s top economic adviser, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, was the primary Republican negotiator of the now stalled COVID-19 relief bill. And it was Mnuchin who proposed the measly $600 payments to Americans. “Many have questioned why the president waited until now to object,” according to Yahoo! News.
Attached to the COVID-19 relief bill is funding for the federal government, which will undergo a partial shutdown if the relief bill is not signed by the president by Monday night.
President-elect Joe Biden’s complete statement urging the president to sign the bill is included below.
It is the day after Christmas, and millions of families don’t know if they’ll be able to make ends meet because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to sign an economic relief bill approved by Congress with an overwhelming and bipartisan majority.
This abdication of responsibility has devastating consequences. Today, about 10 million Americans will lose unemployment insurance benefits. In just a few days, government funding will expire, putting vital services and paychecks for military personnel at risk. In less than a week, a moratorium on evictions expires, putting millions at risk of being forced from their homes over the holidays. Delay means more small businesses won’t survive this dark winter because they lack access to the lifeline they need, and Americans face further delays in getting the direct payments they deserve as quickly as possible to help deal with the economic devastation caused by COVID-19. And while there is hope with the vaccines, we need funding to be able to distribute and administer them to millions of Americans, including frontline health care workers.
This bill is critical. It needs to be signed into law now. But it is also a first step and down payment on more action that we’ll need to take early in the new year to revive the economy and contain the pandemic — including meeting the dire need for funding to distribute and administer the vaccine and to increase our testing capacity.
In November, the American people spoke clearly that now is a time for bipartisan action and compromise. I was heartened to see members of Congress heed that message, reach across the aisle, and work together. President Trump should join them, and make sure millions of Americans can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads in this holiday season.
Trump said he’d be working ‘tirelessly’ for Americans at Mar-a-Lago over Christmas, and then he went golfing
~ Business Insider
~ Posted by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
