By Jeff Stein, The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Saturday continued to demand changes to the $900 billion stimulus deal that Democrats and Republicans approved on Dec. 21, raising the odds that the government could shut down on Tuesday and the economy could suffer a devastating shock in the final days of his presidency.
“I simply want to get out great people $2000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill,” Trump wrote in a tweet.
His demand for $2,000 stimulus checks is a direct rejection of the $600 checks that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had personally proposed and negotiated with Democrats and Republicans. Now, Trump’s rejection of the deal has confounded many leaders on Capitol Hill because they had thought Mnuchin negotiated the package on behalf of the president. The treasury chief’s standing with many lawmakers is now in tatters just days before a full-blown crisis is set to occur.
The president’s denunciation of the agreement represented a stunning public broadside against his own treasury secretary, who for four years loyally shielded the president’s tax returns, endured repeated presidential tirades in private, and defended even Trump’s most incendiary and contradictory remarks. Through it all, Mnuchin had emerged with the unique ability to walk a tightrope between Trump and congressional leaders, serving as an emissary in difficult negotiations. That all ended on Tuesday, when Trump posted a video on Twitter ridiculing the agreement.
Steve Mnuchin’s reputation ‘in tatters’ on Capitol Hill as Trump refuses to sign stimulus: report (Raw Story)
In addition to a possible government shutdown on Tuesday, the entire emergency relief package is in jeopardy. The $600 stimulus checks Mnuchin had promised would be sent later this week cannot be sent if the bill isn’t signed into law. And a range of other emergency relief programs that were part of the package, from rental protections to small-business aid, airline assistance and vaccine distribution money, are also now frozen. Congressional leaders have signaled they will make one last attempt to avert a shutdown on Monday, but their options are dwindling. If all these efforts fail, the economy could deteriorate rapidly during Trump and Mnuchin’s final days in office.
“We’ve been assured that the president would sign the bill, and I have no reason to believe that Secretary Mnuchin didn’t believe that,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s leadership team, told reporters on Thursday.
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