Trump finally signed a second covid relief bill into law on Sunday evening, but not without fucking over millions of people first.
After the House and Senate reached a near-unanimous agreement on the combination stimulus and spending package, Trump threw a wrench in the plans at the last minute, maintaining that he wouldn’t sign any legislation that didn’t include $2,000 stimulus checks. This was nothing more than a political stunt, but it had real human consequences: While Trump sat on the legislation, unemployment benefits expired for more than seven million Americans.
A bartender in New Orleans told HuffPost reporter Arthur Delaney that Trump’s delay had locked them out of the Louisiana unemployment system: “Because I lapsed in the system yesterday ... [I] will have to reapply with a brand new claim.” they said. Another unemployed person told Delaney that they had been cutting their pills in half in order to make them last longer, unable to afford their medication without additional relief.
So that reminds me, what was the president and members of his administration doing while all of this took place? Oh, yeah:
- Trump was: golfing at Mar-a-Lago, while the stimulus package languished on his desk
- Vice President Mike Pence was: skiing in Vail, Colorado, with dozens of Secret Service agents
- White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was: on the beach in Florida with her husband, wearing this vile t-shirt:
OK, that’s what I thought. Nothing else to add!