Trump

By Glynn Wilson –

U.S. Senator Doug Jones of Alabama blasted President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a statement Saturday night in the wake of the president’s signing of executive orders claiming to extend unemployment benefits, in the absence of action in the Senate to provide a second round of stimulus money to boost the economy as the coronavirus still rages.

“While the President is attempting to give the appearance that he is leading the cavalry coming to the rescue of the American people, these executive orders are anything but that,” Senator Jones said. “The executive order to extend the now-lapsed emergency unemployment assistance will cut benefits by $200 a week or more for Alabamians and asks states, whose budgets have already been burdened by the pandemic, to foot part of the bill.”

The temporary delay in payroll tax liability for low- and middle-income workers may have to be paid back in full in a lump sum next year, and could cause a shortfall in funding for Medicare and Social Security. In his announcement, Trump claimed he would “forgive these taxes and make permanent cuts to the payroll tax” should he win reelection in November. These taxes fund Social Security and Medicare. Trump’s mostly symbolic orders with no force of law will inevitably be challenged in court as an unconstitutional abuse of presidential powers.

“The payroll tax collection moratorium is a way for President Trump to follow through with his promise to defund Medicare and privatize Social Security by putting the solvency of these programs at risk, while still leaving open the possibility that those taxes may need to be paid in a lump sum next year,” Jones said. “By signing these executive orders that are more for show than actual help for the American people, President Trump has confirmed that his administration has not acted in good faith and had no intention of reaching bipartisan agreement on legislation that would benefit all Americans.”

Jones also blasted McConnell once again for unilaterally declaring an August recess in the Senate and going home to Kentucky to run for reelection without taking action on a coronavirus relief bill that has already passed in the House.

“It’s completely inexcusable that Mitch McConnell waited over two months after the House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act to begin negotiations on this relief package, knowing full well that many of the programs that Americans have relied on during this crisis would expire at the end of July,” Jones said.

Related: Senator Doug Jones of Alabama Leads Call for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to Bring the Senate Back to Work to Reach Bipartisan Deal on Coronavirus Economic Relief

The Democrat from Birmingham called once again for McConnell to call the Senate back into session.

“The Senate, which absolutely should not have recessed without passing a relief package, needs to immediately return to Washington to pass legislation that provides adequate support for the Americans who are suffering as a result of this virus as well as our economy,” Jones said. “We need to come to a bipartisan compromise that deals with the full slate of urgent issues facing our country: we need a national strategy for COVID testing and contact tracing, to extend federal eviction moratoriums, to provide much-needed funding for state and local governments, and to ensure schools have the resources they need to reopen safely – among so many other needs.

“The failure to negotiate an adequate bipartisan deal speaks to a broader breakdown in leadership in Washington, and I strongly urge my colleagues to put partisanship aside to come together to pass a relief bill as soon as possible,” the senator continued. “Lives and livelihoods are at stake, and each day we spend arguing over politics is another day that our institution fails the American people.”

Reporting by the New York Times and other news outlets shows that the orders signed by Trump will do little to boost the economy.

Trump’s Go-It-Alone Stimulus Won’t Do Much to Lift the Recovery

While the orders could extend unemployment benefits at $400 a week, rather than the $600 provided before and called for in the House bill, cash-strapped states would have to come up with 25 percent of the funds, since the president doesn’t have the money to fund the extension. Only Congress can add money to the budget according to the Constitution. Many states may not have the money to comply.

Trump’s orders contain no new stimulus payment to the American people, who benefited from a $1,200 direct payment in the spring, which helped stave off some of the worst pain and helped prop up consumer spending. The House bill calls for another direct payment to people, and there have been discussions of increasing it to $2,000.

The orders contain no money for states, and no aid to small businesses, just as the Payroll Protection Program expired on Saturday. It contains nothing for schools, while the president and some Republicans in Congress are demanding that schools reopen even though that will inevitably lead to a rise in the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19.

Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff and former member of Congress from North Carolina, conceded many of those limitations in an interview set to air Sunday on Gray Television’s “Full Court Press With Greta Van Susteren.”

“The downside of executive orders is you can’t address some of the small business incidents that are there,” Meadows said. “You can’t necessarily get direct payments, because it has to do with appropriations. That’s something that the president doesn’t have the ability to do. So, you miss on those two key areas. You miss on money for schools. You miss on any funding for state and local revenue needs…”

The coronavirus still rages across the world, and the United States is now number one with 5.1 million reported cases and more than 165,000 deaths. Alabama is among the top hot spot states with more than 100,000 cases and 1,755 deaths to date.

The unemployment rate it still over 10.2 percent.