First Senate Republicans Let Emergency Relief Expire, Now They’re Letting Trump Defund Social Security & Medicare

Senate Republicans “created an urgent crisis” for millions of families when they let the emergency unemployment lifeline expire after wasting weeks bickering among themselves and insisting they didn’t see “a big need” to extend the supplemental relief for millions. Now, President Trump is attempting an “end run” around Congress with executive orders that defund Social Security and Medicare, “create confusion,” and “are rife with so much complexity and legal murkiness that they’re unlikely…to bring fast relief — if any.”

As Senate Republicans continue to block action to extend the $600 per week emergency unemployment lifeline and additional relief that families have relied on to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads, a closer look at Trump’s executive orders makes it clear that they would only make things worse and don’t solve the problems created by Senate Republicans’ failure to act:

• Cutting federal emergency unemployment insurance by 50% and forcing cash-strapped states to pick up the tab. Trump’s executive order does not extend the $600 per week lifeline that expired at the end of last month. Instead, it cuts the federal contribution to emergency unemployment relief in half and forces already cash-strapped states to shoulder an additional 25% of the cost. Senate Republicans have repeatedly refused to provide any additional aid to struggling state and local governments in this crisis as they face massive budget shortfalls.

• Pushing unpopular payroll tax deferral that would raid Social Security and Medicare and force workers to pay back taxes. Trump’s latest attempt to force a payroll tax cut despite bipartisan objection in Congress does nothing for the millions of Americans who lost their job due to the pandemic, hits workers with a giant tax bill in the future, and endangers funds for Social Security and Medicare.

• Leaving families facing eviction out in the cold. Instead of extending the federal eviction moratorium that Democrats fought to include in the CARES Act, Trump’s order would “leave most tenants in peril” and does not include any funds to provide rental assistance to struggling families.

“Senate Republicans created this problem by refusing to extend emergency unemployment insurance, and their solution is to threaten Social Security and Medicare — good luck explaining that to voters,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “They dithered for months and now crucial lifelines millions of families have relied on are gone. This is exactly what voters will remember in November.”

Read what they’re saying about Trump’s confusing and legally dubious executive orders:

New York Times: Trump’s Orders on Coronavirus Relief Create Confusion

• President Trump’s attempt to circumvent Congress to provide coronavirus relief in the absence of a broad agreement resulted in confusion and uncertainty on Sunday for tens of millions of unemployed Americans and countless businesses seeking aid after critical benefits lapsed.

• As negotiations with congressional Democrats remained at an impasse, administration officials were on the defensive a day after the president’s legally questionable executive actions, at times contradicting one another as they sought to explain how the measures would work and how quickly Americans could see any form of relief.

• But [the supplemental unemployment benefits] will be contingent on agreement from state officials, who are already struggling amid budget shortfalls caused by the economic crisis, and the siphoning of aid from a federal fund for disaster relief in the middle of what is expected to be an active hurricane season.

• But the patchwork of moves was less significant than what the president described in his news conference, and the plan appeared unlikely to have immediate, meaningful impact on the sputtering economy, in part because it provided no direct aid to struggling businesses.

• A number of critical provisions are also left unaddressed without a broader deal, including a lapsed federal program for small businesses, another round of stimulus checks, aid to schools confronting the beginning of the academic year and funds for state and local governments reeling from the toll of the pandemic.

• But states are also facing plunging revenues because of the pandemic. They have already struggled to allocate the original $600 payment because of overwhelmed and often antiquated systems, and some experts warn that the revised benefit could last for only five weeks.

New York Times: Trump’s Directives Were Supposed to Offer Relief. Most May Not.

• Mr. Trump described his action as creating “an extra $400 per week in expanded benefits.” But policy analysts said the plan laid out in Mr. Trump’s memo was so complicated, and potentially costly, for states that people won’t get that money quickly, if at all.

• “Nobody is going to see this money in August, and we’ll be lucky to see it in September,” said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a public policy research group.

• The plan is full of caveats. First: It actually translates to an additional $300, not $400, for recipients because the federal government would pay for only 75 percent of cost. States would have to kick in the other 25 percent, or $100 per recipient, per week.

• You would still owe your payroll taxes under the terms of the president’s memorandum, and so would your employer, if you have one. 

• The president’s executive order on assistance to renters doesn’t offer much immediate hope for people on the brink of losing their housing.

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

• [Trump’s executive orders] are likely to do little to deliver cash any time soon to Americans hit hard by the recession.

• Even conservative groups have warned that suspending payroll tax collections is unlikely to translate into more money for workers. An executive action seeking to essentially create a new unemployment benefit out of thin air will almost certainly be challenged in court. And as Mr. Trump’s own aides concede, the orders will not provide any aid to small businesses, state and local governments or low- and middle-income workers.

• [F]ew economists expressed confidence that Mr. Trump’s actions would change the trajectory of an economic recovery that has slowed in the last two months as the virus surged anew in many parts of the nation.

Washington Post: Trump’s executive orders spark confusion among businesses and state officials as Democrats assail them as ‘unworkable’

• President Trump’s new executive actions to disburse coronavirus relief without congressional approval sparked confusion and frustration on Sunday among businesses, Democrats and state officials, some of whom lamented the moves would not deliver the necessary relief to cash-strapped Americans.

• But some economists and experts faulted these policies as incomplete or legally questionable — raising the prospect that the president’s attempt to boost the economy may have only a muted impact.

• Even if state governments sign onto the program, the jobless benefits might be out of reach for Americans in greatest need: Only out-of-work Americans receiving more than $100 a week in state unemployment insurance are eligible for the federal aid. That means those at the bottom of the income distribution — particularly workers who rely on tips and the self-employed — could see no additional federal benefit at all, said Andy Stettner, an unemployment insurance expert at the Century Foundation.

• But experts said that businesses are unlikely to begin deferring tax payments or boosting workers’ checks by next month — or, perhaps, at all. 

• Instead, the costs of Trump’s political gambit could prove great, thrusting the hot-button issue of Social Security and the future of federal entitlement programs into the election mainstream. 

Associated Press: Trump end run around Congress raises questions on his claims

• President Donald Trump’s end run around Congress on coronavirus relief is raising questions about whether it would give Americans the economic lifeline he claims and appears certain to face legal challenges. Democrats called it a pre-election ploy that would burden cash-strapped states.

• But the orders appeared to carry less weight than Trump promoted and cut federal relief spending by shifting more onto the shoulders of struggling states. Critics said the actions crossed a legal line and fell well short of what is needed to help right the fragile economy.

• Trump said earlier that the federal contribution would be redirected from disaster relief money at the Federal Emergency Management Agency — dollars not likely to last more than two months. Shifting FEMA disaster funds also would occur as the peak of hurricane season looms and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warns of an “extremely active” season already underway.

• Trump also acted to defer payment of the payroll tax, a long-pushed goal that had little support from either party on Capitol Hill, and federal student loans. His order on housing is not a guarantee against eviction, as he claimed, but instead directs the departments of the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development to identify money that could help those struggling to pay their monthly rent.

• Trump said the employee portion of the payroll tax would be deferred from Aug. 1 through the end of the year, and he raised the possibility of making it permanent, though experts said he lacked that authority. The temporary deferral would not directly aid unemployed workers, who do not pay the tax when they are jobless. Employees would need to repay the federal government eventually without an act of Congress.

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