Trump orders $400-per-week unemployment payments amid COVID-19 crisis, hits Dems for stonewalling

Trump and his political advisers insist that the U.S. has no rival in its response to the pandemic

The result has been a daily delivery of a mixed message to the public at a moment when coherence is most needed.

President Trump signed four executive orders Saturday aimed at delivering relief to Americans struggling with the economic fallout of the coronavirus while accusing Democrats of stonewalling greater aid efforts.

Trump announced a $400-per-week supplemental unemployment payment to out-of-work Americans -- short of the $600 weekly benefit that expired at the end of July. He unveiled an extension of student loan relief and protections from evictions for renters and homeowners.

Trump also signed a payroll tax holiday through the end of the year for Americans earning less than $100,000, while promising more relief if he wins a second term.

The president signed the executive actions from his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., as club members cheered him on. He blamed Democrats for the coronavirus stalemate in Congress and said he'd take matters into his own hands.

"Democrats are obstructing all of it," Trump said. "Therefore, I'm taking executive action ... and we're going to save American jobs and provide relief to the American workers."

For the new $400-per-week benefit, states would be on the hook for funding 25% to the millions of jobless Americans, while the federal government would pick up 75 percent of the benefit, Trump said. Asked when the jobless would see the money, Trump said it would be “rapidly distributed.”

The $400 boost is more than what many congressional Republicans wanted. Some opposed any extension of the federal aid, while others backed a boost no greater than $200 per week. Meanwhile, Democrats had been fighting for the full $600-per-week extension, which is on top of state unemployment benefits.

Trump has long wanted a holiday on payroll taxes, which helps fund Social Security and Medicare. But congressional Republicans have not fought for the provision because of how much the suspension on tax collection could drive up an already staggering debt.

Acting unilaterally could prompt legal challenges. Since Congress controls new federal spending, Trump already predicted sidestepping lawmakers will have lawsuit consequences. But he dared opponents to deprive Americans of relief.

"If we get sued, it's [from] somebody that doesn't want people to get money," Trump said. "And that's not going to be a very popular thing."

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Trump's payroll tax holiday could drain the Social Security trust fund and said some states cannot afford the 25 percent unemployment match, especially since the GOP has opposed additional money to state and local governments.

“Donald Trump is trying to distract from his failure to extend the $600 federal boost for 30 million unemployed workers by issuing illegal executive orders," Wyden said. "This scheme is a classic Donald Trump con: play-acting at leadership while robbing people of the support they desperately need."

But Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he supports Trump's unilateral actions.

"I applaud @realDonaldTrump executive actions to help the American [people]," Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, tweeted. "Democrats all or nothing strategy jeopardizes the certainty Americans need to pay their bills. [President] Trump puts the American [people] first, compared to nonstop political games by Democrats."

House Democrats already passed their $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill in May. The Senate GOP last month proposed a $1 trillion plan, though didn't bring the measure to a vote as Republicans were divided on whether more aid is even needed.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer have been in talks all week with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, but the two sides couldn't strike a deal.

Democrats blamed the GOP for failing to understand the gravity of the crisis and for trying to "nickel and dime" struggling Americans, while the White House accused Democrats of not being willing to compromise.

Trump blasted the Democrats' $3 trillion HEROES Act as a “radical left policy” that includes bailouts to states, sending stimulus help to undocumented immigrants, and funding for mail-in voting and other election provisions.

“They want to steal the election," Trump said of Democrats.

Trump's orders are narrower in scope than the trillions Congress is mulling for a massive stimulus to the virus-damaged economy.

The president didn't address some of the big issues that congressional proposals sought to tackle, including another round of $1,200 stimulus checks, aid to schools to reopen safely, an infusion of cash to revenue-strapped state and local governments, food assistance, new lawsuit protections for businesses and money for mail-in voting for the 2020 elections.

Because of provisions in the Constitution that grant the legislative branch spending power, the White House can't just pull hundreds of billions out of the ether without Congressional approval.

But the Trump administration believes it has access to $140 billion which it can “reprogram.” That includes $80 billion in untapped money from the big coronavirus bill signed into law in March and roughly $40 billion from the Disaster Relief Fund.

Trump's executive order indicated he would use "up to $44 billion from the DRF" to cover the federal government's 75 percent share of the $400 weekly unemployment aid.

The White House believes it can divert the funding, similar to how Trump in 2019 declared a national emergency at the border with Mexico to shift billions of dollars from the Pentagon budget to help pay for a border wall.

Pelosi and Schumer earlier this week expressed skepticism about Trump's executive powers.

"You can't move that much money," Pelosi said. "We're talking about a major investment."

The Democrats want the White House to continue negotiating with Congress on a big package.

"A better way to do this is [to] come to an agreement that meets the needs of the American people -- a much better way," Schumer said.

The need for relief is pressing as millions of Americans lost the $600-per-week federal unemployment benefit that expired at the end of July. A partial moratorium on evictions on properties with government-backed mortgages also expired at the end of last month.

There are about 110 million Americans living in rental households; up to 23 million renters – or 20 percent – are at risk of eviction by Sept. 30, according to an analysis by the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project.

With the supplemental $600 in unemployment benefits now officially lapsed, about 24 million Americans say they have little to no chance of being able to pay next month's rent, according to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Rent and mortgage payments are typically the largest monthly expense for Americans: 1 in 4 tenant families pays more than half of its income for rent, a rate that’s even higher in cities like San Francisco and New York, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

New jobless figures from the Labor Department, which cover the week ending August 1, show that more than 1.18 million workers sought aid last week, the lowest since March 14. The latest figures bring the total number of unemployment claims since the shutdown began to more than 55 million.

The unemployment rate fell to 10.2%, down from 11.1% in June.

Fox News' Mark Meredith, John Roberts, Jon Decker, Chad Pergram and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

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