Trump Takes Executive Action to Provide Reduced Enhanced Unemployment Payment

President Donald Trump signs executive orders extending CCP virus economic relief, during a news conference in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 8, 2020. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump took executive action on Saturday to extend the weekly enhanced unemployment payment at a reduced level.

He signed a memorandum during a press conference on Saturday afternoon as the negotiations between the White House and the Democrats collapsed.

The new payment will be $400 per week. The federal government will cover 75 percent of the cost while the states will pay the rest, he said.

The president said that some governors might not be happy with the actions, suggesting that he didn’t negotiate with all governors before the announcement.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) didn’t immediately respond to an email request for comment.

The president also, via executive orders or memorandums, deferred payroll tax for Americans earning less than $100,000 per year from Sept. 1, authorized the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to offer eviction protections to renters and homeowners, and extended the term of relief to student loan borrowers from Sept. 30 to the end of the year.

President Donald Trump signs executive orders extending coronavirus economic relief, during a news conference in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 8, 2020. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

The payment—which was authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and was $600 per week on top of existing unemployment benefits—expired on July 31. The White House and the Democrats failed to reach a deal on extending the payment.

The White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin started negotiations with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Aug. 1.

“At this point, it’s clear Democrats want to play politics with American jobs,” Meadows wrote in a Twitter post right before Trump’s press conference. “Since Democrats won’t step up and do their job, @realdonaldtrump will do it for them.”

There are several areas in which the two sides disagree with each other. The Democrats want a comprehensive stimulus package costing $3.4 trillion, while the White House prefers a smaller bill as the first step in addressing the most important issues, including an extension of enhanced unemployment payments and eviction protections for tenants.

Pelosi and Schumer also want $915 billion in aid for state and local governments included in the bill, to which the White House offered $150 billion.

Trump said on Saturday that many requirements from the Democrats are irrelevant to the outbreak, including bailout money for states and local governments, articles to ban voter ID and signature verification, and universal mail-in ballots.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are blocking measures supporting K-12 school reopening, additional money for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), additional money for hospitals, testing, and vaccines, and direct payments of $3,400 for families of four, he said.

The president said on Friday that he will use executive power to extend the enhanced unemployment payment and suspend the payroll tax.

He announced during an unplanned press conference on Friday that he would defer the payroll tax until the end of the year, enhance unemployment benefits until the end of the year, defer student loan payments and forgive interest indefinitely, and reinstate a federal moratorium on evictions.

The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as novel coronavirus and caused the disease of COVID-19, originated from Wuhan city in China and has infected over 19 million people and claimed lives of more than 718,000 outside China according to government data collected by The Johns Hopkins University.

The Chinese regime claimed—which has been highly doubted—that there are only 88,649 infection and 4,681 death inside China.

It’s widely reported that the Chinese regime covered up the outbreak and refused to share information with other countries. As a result of the outbreak, countries around the world became more aware of the dangers of the Chinese regime and its socialist ideologies.