After President Trump signed three presidential memorandums and one executive order extending coronavirus relief on Saturday, Democrat leaders suggested this weekend that they would take the White House to court.
Trump signed a series of orders over the weekend to extend unemployment benefits and student loan relief, to protect Americans from evictions, and to delay the collection of payroll taxes after Congress failed to pass its second coronavirus relief package.
Democrats are to blame for the breakdown in negotiations, the White House said, since they refused to compromise and instead insisted that the GOP pledge to increase funding for schools, subsidize rent payments, and protect the United States Postal Service.
Republican leadership rejected these demands and attempted to propose a negotiation for a $2 trillion package — which is double what the GOP had originally proposed — but Democrats rejected it and argued that it did not meet their demands, which would cost nearly $3.4 trillion.
“Why are they resisting?,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “Republicans want to apply just a Band-Aid. We won’t let them just pass the Band-Aid, go home and leave America bleeding.”
Because of the Democrats’ politicking, President Trump announced that he would act unilaterally.
“If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need,” Trump said on Friday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested on Sunday that Democrats would take legal action against the Trump administration if necessary.
“The president’s meager, weak, and unconstitutional actions further demand that we have an agreement,” she said.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, however, said that the Democrats’ threats won’t hold Trump back from working on behalf of the American people.
“If the Democrats want to challenge us in court and hold up unemployment benefits to those hardworking Americans that are out of a job because of Covid, they’re going to have a lot of explaining to do,” Mnuchin said.
