The U.S. Lawmakers on Thursday have reportedly blocked a bid by U.S. President Donald Trump to alter the US$2.3 trillion coronavirus aid and government spending package which could potentially lead to millions of Americans losing their benefits.
Each political parties in the House have continued to have a different view on the relief plan sine the first one was handed out months ago. It was reported that the Democrats had sought to increase direct payments to Americans included in the bill from about US$600 to US$2000 per person as part of the country’s attempt for the COVID-19 economic relief. The bid was eventually opposed by the Republicans in the House of Representative.
The trend of doing exactly the opposite thing one political party in house does kind of throw the whole stimulus check to be hanging in balance. A good example of that which I think could be seen as a retaliatory measure was when the Republicans sought to also change the amount of foreign aid included in the package which was meant to address one of Trump’s complaint was then blocked by the Democrats too.
President-elect Joe Biden had promised to unite both divided political oppositions in the country and I wonder how well he’ll be able to implement this. Meanwhile while the members of the House continued to have different stances on how to go about things, millions of American continue to find themselves in serious economic dilemma which has crippled their livelihood as the intervention of the government would be a great idea right at this moment and do not forget the fact that there are some partial lockdown at some states in the country over the fear of the second-wave of the pandemic despite the good news about the vaccine breakthrough.
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President Trump on the other hand had continued to move for the Congress to alter the coronavirus and government-spending package which according to Reuters passed by wide, bipartisan margins on Monday.
Meanwhile members of both the Senate and House urged the President to back down and sign the legislation but there seems to be nothing about it just yet. Its also worth noting that the lawmakers were instrumental in getting negotiations moving forward a few weeks ago when they proposed $908 billion in coronavirus aid, slightly above the level Congress finally settled upon.
“The legislation would bring desperately needed help to struggling families, unemployed workers, hard-hit small businesses, an overburdened health care system, stressed schools, and so many others,” they wrote.
Eleven senators, including Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Mitt Romney of Utah, signed the statement, along with two House members, the Republican and Democratic co-chairs of the “Problem Solvers Caucus.” West Virginia and Utah were among states that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the November election.
While the President seems to be having a good views in Florida as well as sending out Tweets about the presidential election, there seems to be nothing from the White House about the bill being signed into law even though there was a 5500-page bill which had been negotiated over the period of months which had earlier being thought of that the president will eventually sign into law.
According to analysis, if the bill isn’t signed into law, unemployment benefits for some 14 million Americans could lapse starting on Saturday which could force the U.S. government into a partial shutdown by Tuesday.
New stimulus checks, which could go out as soon as next week, would be delayed, as would payments to cash-strapped states that are administering the vaccine rollout.
A moratorium on tenant evictions would expire on Dec. 31, instead of being extended for another month. The standoff comes as the U.S. economy is cooling in the face of the raging pandemic.
This would mean that the Congress would require the cooperation of the President in order to see that this work out if at all. Meanwhile there have also being some Democrats who believes that the US$892 billion coronavirus aid package will not be enough to address the situation of the pandemic and are reportedly open for a bigger stimulus checks.
“How ironic it would be to shut down the federal government at a time of pandemic crisis, the very time when government services are needed the most,” House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said at a news conference.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber would hold a vote on the stimulus-check increase on Monday. The House will also on Monday try to override Trump’s veto of an unrelated defense-policy bill.
Republicans opposed larger direct payments during negotiations as they sought to limit the size of the coronavirus aid package. Increased payments could add hundreds of billions of dollars to the overall price tag.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Thursday that Democrats should be willing to address foreign aid and other elements of the bill that McCarthy has derided as wasteful spending. “House Democrats appear to be suffering from selective hearing,” he wrote in a letter to other House Republicans.
Joe Biden on the other hand has supported larger coronavirus aid package which is meant to assist those who have financial difficulty during this tough time all thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. I do hope the US Congress can have an accord with the President in order to help people in need scale through the difficult times of the pandemic.