What a moron does:
President
Trump on Tuesday night asked Congress to amend the nearly $900 billion
stimulus and spending bill passed by the Senate just one day before,
describing the legislation as “a disgrace” and suggesting he would not
immediately sign off on aid for millions of Americans.
In a video posted to Twitter,
Trump called on Congress to increase the “ridiculously low” $600
stimulus checks to $2,000 and outlined a list of provisions in the final
legislation that he described as “wasteful spending and much more.” He
did not mention that the $600 stimulus check idea came from his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin. [snip]
Some aides were stunned that Trump weighed in the way he did after his economic team had publicly praised the bill.
But
administration officials had negotiated the bill with lawmakers in the
final days without explicitly securing Trump’s approval, aides said. He
had largely been distracted with overturning the results of the
presidential election.
Trump
had long wanted to do more than $600 in checks and kept asking aides
why they couldn’t agree to a bigger number, an official said.
He released the video Tuesday after a number of his aides, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, were already out of town.
“So dumb,” one administration official said. “So, so dumb.” [snip]
Virtually all of the complaints Trump made in the four-minute video —
including foreign aid agreements, aid to the Kennedy Center, fish
management language and more — are not part of the $900 billion covid
relief agreement but rather included in other, separately negotiated
part of the legislation. This part of the bill is a $1.4 trillion
omnibus appropriations bill and a bill authorizing $9.9 billion in water
projects. These bills and many others were packaged together into one
package.
Two
congressional aides who had been involved in the negotiations said they
were completely unaware of any problems the White House had with the
bill. On Sunday, Ben Williamson, a spokesman for White House Chief of
Staff Mark Meadow, said publicly ahead of the bill’s release that Trump
supported the legislation and would sign it.
Trump’s
refusal to publicly embrace the bill as it moved through Congress made
some aides nervous, raising the prospect that he would once again
cannonball into the pool at the end with a public declaration.
“This
is what happens with a president who places more trust in conservative
fever swamp Twitter than his own Treasury Secretary. His administration
helped negotiate this bill, and he just pulled down the pants of every
Republican who voted for it,” said Brendan Buck, a former top aide to
Speaker Paul Ryan. Ryan and Buck often struggled with the president
changing his mind. [snip]
The House and Senate passed the bill with such large margins that they
could probably override a veto, if Trump tried to block the measure. But
that process could take weeks. And in the video, Trump didn’t
explicitly say he would veto it. He also didn’t commit, however, to
signing it into law. (our emphasis)
We have to see how this plays out over the coming hours and days. When you're dealing with an unstable nitwit who hasn't a clue about policy or how the legislative process works, the potential for major delay is real. We're not sure who's been whispering into Mango Mussolini's ear, but some of the worst sociopaths in Congress voted against the bill and may have influenced him (Republican Sens. Ron "Tiny" Johnson, "Ayn" Rand Paul, Rick Scott, Tailgunner Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Marsha "Holes In" Blackburn were the only 6 who voted against the bill), or it may be dead- ender Trade Advisor Peter Navarro. Regardless, real people will suffer any derailment of this relief legislation, and that's another "legacy" of this most despicable president and his regime.
UPDATE: Speaker Pelosi with the outflanking --
Sen. Schumer piles on:
