Wednesday December 23, 2020
Congress decision "a shame"
Trump refuses to sign the aid package
The Americans have been waiting for financial support from the government for many months. Congress has agreed on an aid package, but US President Trump does not want to sign it. He calls for higher aid payments to citizens and small businesses.
The incumbent US President Donald Trump has called for improvements to the corona stimulus package passed by Congress with a large majority. The bundle of measures is a "disgrace," said Trump in a video message published on Twitter. Trump urged MPs and senators to make improvements and indicated that he would otherwise not sign the stimulus package, which is worth around 900 billion US dollars.
The Republican demanded that the one-time and direct aid payments to most citizens should be increased from a "ridiculous" $ 600 to $ 2,000. Small businesses, "especially restaurants whose owners have suffered so badly," are paid too little money. In addition, Trump demanded that from his point of view "wasteful and unnecessary" expenses, which were contained in the more than 5000-page legislative package, be deleted. He cited something like the payment of $ 85.5 million to Cambodia or half a billion to Central American countries.
The compromise package, laboriously negotiated by both parties, had previously been passed by Congress with an overwhelming majority. If Trump actually vetoed it, Congress could overrule it with a two-thirds majority. Shortly before the end of his presidency, it would then be the first time for Trump that Congress overrode his veto. Because of the Christmas holidays, it seems uncertain whether the congress would have enough time for this.
In addition to the President, the House of Representatives was also re-elected on November 3rd, as well as around a third of the seats in the Senate. The Congress meets for the new legislative period in early January. Trump was defeated in the presidential election to the Democrat Joe Biden, who is due to take office on January 20.
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