Tag: Trump botched COVDI-19 response

Is Trump Using Next Stimulus Package To Undermine Funding Of Social Security And Medicare?

Could a payroll tax cut be a Trojan horse to undercut Social Security and Medicare?

Trump Demands Payroll Tax Cut For Next Stimulus Bill

President Trump has thrown an unnecessary wrench into the next coronavirus stimulus package negotiations by demanding that it include a payroll tax cut. Earlier in the week, his advisor, Stephen Moore, foreshadowed Trump’s red-line. “High-ranking White House officials have told me that we will not sign a phase four deal without a payroll tax cut,” Stephen Moore, a White House economic adviser, told The Washington Post. “I have talked to several high-level people in the White House who said the president will not sign [the legislation] if it does not include a payroll tax cut.” Trump confirmed this view, although in his usual equivocal way, during an interview with Chris Wallace, saying, “I would consider not signing it if we don’t have a payroll tax cut.”

Payroll Tax Cut Are Effective, But Not Against Coronavirus Crisis

Republicans and Democrats alike have been lukewarm on a payroll tax holiday and for good reason. It’s an ineffective, policy tool that isn’t well suited for the current crisis. Continue reading.

Trump defends bungled handling of coronavirus with falsehoods and dubious claims

Washington Post logoPresident Trump said in an interview aired Sunday that the rising number of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus “is what it is,” defended his fumbled management of the pandemic with a barrage of dubious and false claims, and revealed his lack of understanding about the fundamental science of how the virus spreads and infects people.

Making one of his biggest media appearances in months — an hour-long, sit-down interview with “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace — Trump was visibly rattled and at times hostile as he struggled to answer for his administration’s failure to contain the coronavirus, which has claimed more than 137,000 lives in the United States.

On a range of other topics, including the racial justice movement and the Confederate flag, the president positioned himself firmly outside the political mainstream. And Trump suggested he might not accept the results of November’s general election should he lose because he predicted without evidence that “mail-in voting is going to rig the election.” Continue reading.

Trump downplays virus, disputes bad polls in testy interview with Fox’s Wallace

The Hill logoPresident Trump in a testy interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace downplayed recent surges in coronavirus cases, defended his stance on Confederate-named bases and sought to attack his fall opponent, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. 

Trump disputed polls showing him trailing Biden, eviscerating his Democratic opponent as “not competent to be president” and controlled by the “radical” progressive wing of the party.

He also complained about his inability to hold rallies in some areas of the country due to the coronavirus, accusing “Democrat-run states” of not allowing him to do so. Continue reading.