Trump signs the stimulus bill
I see this move as being motivated by (a) the fact that if Trump had vetoed the bill, Congress was able to override his veto anyway or pass it next session; and (2) he was looking to the January 5th Georgia runoffs and thinks this will help.
Trump is getting plenty of criticism for signing the bill – here’s a typical piece:
Trump had nothing to lose at this point by sticking to his threat to not sign the bill until he got what he wanted. Yet, he chose to go ahead and do so for reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me. Any leverage he had is now gone,
I believe Trump may have thought he had Georgia and the future Senate to lose – although of course it’s not “he” who would lose but the American people (who are already losing to the left, big time). Also, the phrase “any leverage he had is gone” is puzzling to me. What leverage did he have in this case? It was clear there were enough votes to override any veto (or that the next administration would get it passed and sign it), and I think it has become quite clear that Trump also is almost certainly a lame duck president at this point.
The author of that piece ends it by conceding the lack of leverage. So I don’t get the point of all the criticism. I think it’s just anger and extreme frustration – which I share – at the way things have been going in this country.
From here on out, it will be one loss after another in perpetuity.
Again, his administration agreed to link the stimulus to the omnibus bill so whether he likes it or not he tacitly approved this thing. He should have been raising hell about it before then.
This bill was dealt with as … business as usual and also Dems used it to embarrass/teach Trump a lesson. Trump has done it to the Dems several times and the Dems wanted payback.
The public would see through it if they only looked for all the pork in the bill. Media is not going to say anything. A past Dem Congressman of my district used to run on the slogan … Vote for Jack Brooks and I’ll bring home the bacon. He did for years.
It is my understanding that he could have let it sit unsigned, a pocket veto, and then the Congress would have adjourned before it went into effect automatically at the end of the 10 days.
Then Congress would have had to start over.
With all the pork exposed this time.
He would not be blamed explicitly for a veto.
Plausible Deniability.
Jack: I think Trump did force the public to see the pork, especially by allowing the linkage of the COVID and Omnibus bills. I’m curious about the 1974 act he invoked. It seems like the 45 days buys some time but it may not result in the spending being cut. Of course, Trump thinks he will still be in office after January 20th. The other wild card is who controls the Senate.
Trump wanted normal Americans to get more cash, even tho there’s far too much Dem pork. Mitch wanted it passed – like most GOPe. If GOP Senate is unwilling to vote against obscene levels of pork, it’s lazy of American conservative voters to expect heavy lifting from a Trump who’s just won but legally lost his re-election.
The Dems want more pork – not “the left” who don’t appear on ballots. (D) Democrats, like Biden and Pelosi and AOC. Reps need to stop “protecting” the “moderate” Democrats from the policies they vote for. Yes, the “Left” is worse than the avg. Dem, but Dem voters are where the political power comes from, and whatever Dem they vote for is now helping in the destruction of Free Speech and in valuing the ideal of race-blind America.
The Dems use misplaced “justice” and genuine feelings of guilt about unearned easy living to generate passion. It works – and their activists work. “The personal is political” — everybody who says this is a little totalitarian, a little dictator. And they hate Freedom.
Freedom is letting other people disagree with your opinion. The Dems don’t like it.
I’m literally sick of it (er, and maybe just a normal infection, too. Anti-biotics are working only slowly).
I’d guess there are lots of times Trump is sick of it, too.
Personally I don’t think he should have signed it. That said, I’m not sure I agree that we’re losing to the left “big time”. I believe the election was stolen, but even if enough people did hate Trump so much to give that many votes to a potted plant look at the rest of the down ticket voting. People see the danger in socialism but if things like “open borders” and “activist civics”
occur then yes, the left will dominate…for a long time.
Back to business as usual in Washington.
Correct me if I am wrong but this is an Omnibus bill not a budget bill. President Trump can spend the pork any way he wants just so long as items in the bill benefit. e.g. He can spend $20 of 15 million on an item in the bill and spend the rest on a food bank.
Mythx (6:00 pm) said: “Back to business as usual in Washington.”
Yes . . . if there was any discernible theme at all to Joe Biden’s “campaign” for USA President (such as it was[n’t]) — other than “I’m not Trump, therefore vote for me” — it was a return to business as usual, including the attendant leftish tinge.
OK if I’m reading this correct it looks like House passed bill with $2,000 payments for those that are eligible and the rest as is.
All other Trump demands can take a hike.
And on to the Senate.
Is that how everyone else reads it?
I too think Trump should have forced Congress to override his veto.
Nor do I think he should have resorted to a pocket veto.
By vetoing this obscenity of a ‘bill’,he’d have put the responsibility for it firmly upon those in Congress who vote to continue the impoverishment of future generations. Followed by an unprecedented tyranny.
Once again Trump has listened to the wrong advisors. I see it as his greatest flaw. And I attribute it to his reliance upon gut instinct which, absent foundational principle… is all too susceptible to ‘learned’ persuasion.
There can be only one future consequence of this plummeting into ever deeper levels of unsustainable debt. The sovereign bankruptcy of America with the resultant economic enslavement of the vast majority of Americans.
We are far past the point where politicians can pretend to themselves that this will somehow work itself out in a way that escapes disaster. Their actions are intentional. RINO’s have foolishly and cravenly decided that as active collaborators, they’ll be suitably rewarded. They’ve decided to join those they view as on the ‘winning side’ and have abandoned all integrity in doing so.
History repeats itself; “The Suicide of the Liberals”
https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/10/suicide-of-the-liberals
The obscenities in the “omnibus” bill are legion in number and in direction.
$25 million “for democracy in Pakistan” is just a tiny example.
The $2K “stimulus” per person below a certain income, including the 2019 dead in all likelihood, will make the most devoted Euro-socialist smile.
The federal debt and its unfunded liabilities now thunder toward $150 TRILLION.
The country is over and done, as I’ve commented here many times. Russia is still the adversary and China is just a nice wooly soft teddy bear.
Enjoy your coming slavery, Democrats. Your Georgia Senate candidates are a sign of your future leadership. And ours too, damn the thought.
IRC, a normal budget and spending bill has not been passed through Congress since Obama’s election in 2008. The Democrats have used this strategy, which I call fiscal blackmail, to pass these porked up omnibus spending bills. They load the normal bills with pork, which the Republicans will oppose. The bills stall until the time when they must be passed or the government will shut down. At that point the Democrats and the MSM begin a campaign to blame the tightwad Republicans for shutting down the government. The Republicans try to make their case, but whenever the government has been shut down, the inevitably are blamed. The omnibus bill is passed and all because the Dems have blackmailed the Republicans into having to vote for it. So, the Dems play this gambit over and over. And the deficit continues to grow. The Dems have adopted a (baseless) belief in Modern Monetary Theory as the basis for never worrying about Federal deficits. And the beat goes on.
There will come a point where all that debt is going to make a difference. What could finally bring the house of cards down is when the Greenies have eliminated fossil fuels with no replacement except wind and solar. That way lies national bankruptcy and poverty for sure. As long as the GDP can be grown at a reasonable pace, the bankruptcy can be delayed. That growth cannot happen without abundant, reasonably priced energy.
WARNING: WAY OFF TOPIC, but I know you’ll all want to know.
Yesterday, 29 December 2020, The New York Post (https://tinyurl.com/ydxgswjc) reported the following:
“President Trump’s signature Sunday on the $2.3 trillion COVID-19 relief and government funding bill started a 180-day countdown for the Pentagon and spy agencies to say what they know about UFOs.
The provision received very little attention, in part because it wasn’t included in the text of the 5,593-page legislation, but as a ‘committee comment’ attached to the annual intelligence authorization act, which was rolled into the massive bill.”