The second rescue to the United States economy due to the coronavirus crisis will see the light after a few days of unexpected tension, during which the president, Donald Trump, threatened to block the aid approved in Congressby Republicans and Democrats.
On Sunday night the president ended up yielding to criticism from both parties – and the environmental pressure itself, with 14 million unemployed on the tightrope – and signed the bill, which includes aid worth 900,000 million dollars. The rule also prevents a new federal government shutdown due to lack of agreement on financing.
The president had demanded, among other changes, an increase in direct individual aid from $ 600 to $ 2,000, something that Democrats also wanted, but not Republicans.
This afternoon, the House of Representatives, with a Democratic majority, approved an increase proposal like the one demanded by Trump with 275 votes in favor and 134 against (44 Republicans supported it), but it must be endorsed in a Senate with a conservative majority. So,
The negotiation of this new stimulus package, with the presidential elections in between, was made to be expected, but on December 21 it came through in Congress by an overwhelming majority of Democrats and Republicans.
The next day and unexpectedly, Trump demanded several changes, such as the aforementioned increase in aid from $ 600 to $ 2,000 and cuts in public spending, an element he had not talked about until then.
The increase in payments to those $ 2,000 was flatly rejected by the Republicans, the president’s party. What both parties agreed on, in any case, is that the president should not block the plan.
The stakes were high, from unemployment benefits to funds for the distribution of vaccines, passing through the moratorium against evictions or loans for companies in the face of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Recession.
This Monday, after the signing, Wall Street reacted with sharp increases in shares, especially those of those companies that were especially hit, such as the airline American Airlines or the cruise company Norwegian Cruise Line.
Sources quoted by the US media declared on Sunday that throughout the week, while resting at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, the president had been continuously changing his mind about whether or not to sign the bill.
Republicans lobbied for him to do so. “I think when you leave office, you want to be remembered for advocating higher paychecks, but the danger is that you will be remembered for the chaos, misery, and erratic behavior,” warned Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey during a interview on FOX network .
Leftist senator Bernie Sanders called the president’s sudden push against the agreed stimulus “pathologically narcissistic.” “It’s crazy, really crazy, this president must do the right thing for the American people and stop worrying about his ego,” Sanders said on ABC.
This last front opened by Trump, which has put both citizens and the federal government’s own funding in check, which was agreed in the same package, is part of the flight forward that the president has undertaken since he lost re-election . \
The Republican still does not acknowledge defeat and encourages accusations of fraud that the courts have dropped and from which the bulk of his party has also distanced itself. This Sunday, on his Twitter account, Trump sent this message: “See you in Washington on January 6!
Do not miss it. More information will follow ”. That is the date that Congress, in a bicameral session, must count and confirm the votes cast for Democrat Joe Biden. winner of the elections on November 3, the last step before being sworn in on January 20.
In that text it does not specify if it refers to a new demonstration against the electoral result, such as those that its most staunch followers have called in recent weeks; to a possible rebellion of Republican senators and congressmen (without possibilities of prospering) in that last procedure or to some act carried out by himself, which has hinted at his intention to present himself as a candidate for the presidential elections of 2024.
The leader of his party in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, recognized Biden’s victory weeks ago and with him, most legislators, leaving the New York tycoon practically alone.
E l bailout approved on December 21, a bill of 5,593 pages, includes 900.000 million dollars in emergency aid to families and businesses hit by the effects of the health crisis, while ensuring the financing of the government until September and represents a total outlay of 2.3 trillion dollars.
The bill had broad support from both parties on Capitol Hill, passing in the lower house by 359 to 53 votes and in the Senate, with a Republican majority, by 92 to 6.
