President-elect Joe Biden has renewed calls for $2,000 direct payments to be included in the next CCP virus stimulus measures.
“Increase payments to the people, get rid of the ‘pork,'” Trump wrote early on Dec. 27, while posting a video to say he would likely veto the stimulus package.
With Democratic candidates winning both seats during the Georgia runoff election on Jan. 5, Democrats will have 50 seats in the Senate. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, would cast tie-breaking votes.
But at least one Senate Democrat has expressed opposition for $2,000 direct payments. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told The Washington Post on Jan. 8 that he was “absolutely” opposed to a new round of checks and that he was only open to checks for a narrow group of people.
“If they can direct money and they say, ‘This will help stimulate the economy,’ ... I’m for it,” Manchin said. “But basically right now, you better get them vaccinated.”
Congress’s last omnibus and COVID-19 funding package garnered widespread scrutiny over its foreign aid spending. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being sent as forms of aid to foreign countries and other forms of American engagement abroad, according to the omnibus bill.
Trump previously raised concerns that a significant amount was going to other countries instead of to struggling Americans.
“This bill contains $85.5 million for assistance to Cambodia, $134 million to Burma, $1.3 billion for Egypt and the Egyptian military, which will go out and buy almost exclusively Russian military equipment, $25 million for democracy and gender programs in Pakistan, $505 million to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama,” he said at the time.