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On Saturday, President Donald Trump signed three memoranda and one executive order aimed at responding to the coronavirus pandemic: an additional $400 per week for unemployed workers, a payroll tax deferral, a suspension of student loan payments, and a memorandum aimed at preventing evictions. White House
See our prior coverage of the stimulus bill negotiations here. The Flip Side
The right believes the executive actions will help Trump politically but that they have worrying implications for the separation of powers.
“The moves might’ve been meant mostly to light a fire under Dems and prompt concessions. As with past packages, Democrats have been slowing any agreement, demanding the moon and figuring they can blame Trump for any stalemate. They’ve resisted, for instance, narrow stand-alone measures, even those both sides agree on. They started the bidding for a deal at a ridiculous $3.4 trillion, more than the entire GDP of any other country except Germany, Japan and China. (The GOP plan, at a still-sky-high $1 trillion, was modest in comparison.) And this, after Congress already set aside nearly $3 trillion in the four previous packages.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
“As a political matter, Trump’s move looks like a masterstroke. Since the days of FDR, the public has always seemed to approve of presidents who act to ameliorate suffering while Congress diddles. A flurry of activity, even of the futile or potentially counterproductive kind, makes a president look energetic and caring. In this instance, Trump’s move might well force congressional Democrats to reach a deal. That outcome, too, would be a political win for the president.”
Paul Mirengoff, Power Line Blog
“The Democratic complaint that [deferring payroll taxes] jeopardizes Social Security and Medicare is dishonest. Democrats supported the payroll tax holiday when Mr. Obama did it and Mrs. Pelosi praised it at the time. Mr. Biden wants to expand Medicare to anyone at age 60 instead of 65, which would bankrupt the program without benefit cuts or huge tax increases…
“Mr. Trump’s worst order would redeploy up to $44 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund to finance extra jobless benefits by $300 a week (plus $100 a week if states choose to match it with previous relief money)…
“Mr. Trump is commandeering the power of the purse that the Constitution reserves for Congress. Yes, Mr. Obama did it first. He paid health insurers cost-sharing subsidies under ObamaCare without an appropriation from Congress. More famously, as part of his ‘pen’ and ‘phone’ strategy, he used executive diktats to provide work permits for millions of undocumented aliens… These columns opposed Mr. Obama’s orders, and one constitutional abuse doesn’t justify another.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“The president has used national emergencies to legislate what Congress denied him no less than three times. The first was to secure funding for the border wall in February 2019. A few months later, in May 2019, the president declared another emergency to facilitate the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia after Congress balked in the Kashoggi murder. The COVID relief emergency orders are President Trump’s third trip to the well…
“[Trump’s] tendency to legislate by emergency orders is one that can be easily adopted and expanded by the next Democrat in the White House. You may like Trump handing out money and managing the economy by executive fiat, but you probably won’t like it when President Biden or some other president declares a national emergency to combat climate change or gun violence.”
David Thornton, The Resurgent
The left is critical of the executive actions, arguing that they are both insufficient to combat the crisis and infringe upon Congress’s powers.
The left is critical of the executive actions, arguing that they are both insufficient to combat the crisis and infringe upon Congress’s powers.
“In an unofficial campaign rally at one of his golf courses last night, Trump announced that he’d sign executive orders that freeze the payroll tax, put a moratorium on evictions, and give a $400-a-week unemployment benefits to those laid off. The fine print: The eviction moratorium isn’t binding (it only encourages landlords not to throw people out of their homes) and the $400-a-week aid must be paid 25 percent by states with an unclear policy on how that will work. Plus, all of it could be illegal because only Congress can approve federal spending.”
Jacob Rosenberg, Mother Jones
“Trump says he is extending an unemployment insurance subsidy of $400. This is a cynical ploy. ‘He calls for $44 billion of funding from the Department of Homeland Security’s Disaster Relief Fund that is normally used for hurricanes, tornadoes and massive fires to be shifted over to unemployment,’ The Post reports. Having snatched money from the military for his wall, he now robs disaster relief without authorization to pay for something entirely unrelated. Moreover, even on its own terms, it would pay for just [five] more weeks of unemployment insurance.”
Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post
“Since Congress has not authorized an extension of extra federal unemployment assistance, states would have to set up an entirely new system to deliver the aid. Building those programs could take months, according to Michelle Evermore, an unemployment expert at the National Employment Law Project. ‘The states that don't get the program set up as quickly as other states aren't going to get any funding because it will run out,’ Evermore told CNN's Kristen Holmes on Saturday evening.”
Zachary B. Wolf, CNN
Regarding the payroll tax cut, “The payroll tax funds those two vital and beloved programs. When you suspend collection of the revenue that funds those two programs, you endanger their viability. Say it with me, Democrats: Donald Trump wants to gut Medicare and Social Security…
“This is not his first attempt. His 2021 and 2020 budgets each proposed deep and painful cuts in Social Security and Medicare. How deep? How painful? $2 trillion over ten years, according to the Wall Street Journal. What a coincidence: that's about how much Trump's 2017 tax cut for corporate America cost… Fittingly, Trump issued his order and memorandums at his Bedminster, New Jersey country club, where the initiation fee is reportedly $350,000 -- yet another proof-point that Trump's heart is really with the Forgotten Upper Class.”
Paul Begala, CNN
“Trump has been fixated on the idea of cutting payroll taxes to stimulate the economy for months now. It has never made sense, and never will make sense, since by definition, cutting payroll taxes gives the most help to people who need it least right now (namely, people who still have well-paying jobs, as opposed to the unemployed)… [Moreover] Trump can’t actually rewrite the tax code, and employers are going to owe the money eventually. In all likelihood, that means they’ll continue withholding it from their workers’ earnings, and few people will actually see their take-home pay increase… the much more helpful move here would be to just reach a deal with Democrats on an actual relief bill.”
Jordan Weissmann, Slate
