President Donald Trump has made another call for $600 stimulus checks to be increased to $2,000. This is at least his second public call for the stimulus amount to be increased for the American people.
The president posted his message on Twitter, saying: “Made many calls and had meetings at Trump International in Palm Beach, Florida. Why would politicians not want to give people $2000, rather than only $600? It wasn’t their fault, it was China. Give our people the money!”
The bill, which he has not signed, only called for $600 to most Americans, but Trump demanded an increase and found support from people on the Democratic side. Congresspeople such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley have supported Trump’s call for larger payments going to the American people.
However, along with the calls for more money to Americans, President Trump wants some of the foreign aid cut as well. This is money that was part of the omnibus, but tied into the relief bill because of negotiations.
As stated on Fox News, “Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., a member of “The Squad” from Boston, expressed such sentiment in a tweet appearing to praise Trump for taking a “hard line in support of what Progressives have been fighting for.” But she called the president the “Occupant of the White House” and accused him of trying to “spite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.”
PA Republican Senator Patrick Toomey appears to think otherwise. He suggested to Trump that the $908 billion relief package be signed and they decide if additional stimulus checks go to Americans later… or not.
Toomey, a noted fiscal hawk, added that he too has many issues with some of the bill’s expenditures.
“There are a lot of provisions I don’t like,” Toomey said. “There are provisions that the Democrats don’t like. This is what we were able to get to, and my suggestion would be let’s pass this and get this signed, let’s get this into law, and we can have an ongoing discussion about whether there should be additional direct payments or not.”
As of now, the president has not signed the relief bill.