With the fate of the roughly $900 billion COVID-19 relief package in the air as Congress leaves town for Christmas, lawmakers are blasting President Donald Trump for making a last-minute demand to increase the amount of stimulus checks and threatening not to sign the bill.
On Tuesday, Trump called on Congress to revise the bill and boost the amount of the direct payments from $600 to $2,000 and signaled that he would not sign the bill in its current form.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday after an effort to increase the amount of the stimulus checks failed, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said, “Was this bill perfect? No.”
“But it was a down payment on getting COVID relief to the people of this country. And then the president, when we finally thought that we’d be able to give people hope — that’s what people need: hope! — […] doesn’t give a damn about people.”
She continued, “He threw more fear, he threw kerosene on a terror fire, and is now threatening to veto this bill.”
Watch the video below:
Rep. Debbie Dingell: "The President, when we finally thought that we'd be able to give people hope — that's what people need: hope! — … doesn't give a damn about people!
— The Hill (@thehill) December 24, 2020
He threw more fear — he threw kerosene — on a terror fire, and is now threatening to veto this bill." pic.twitter.com/ee6d2MGD4G
Dingell noted that House Democrats tried to pass a bill that would have increased the amount of the stimulus checks, but added that Republicans blocked the measure.
“I beg the president to know how many people in this country are scared, fearful, terror, hungry, and that we must get a bill done so that we are helping Americans,” she added.
Congress passed the $892 billion relief package on Monday. The bill would have sent out $600 direct payments to Americans. Additionally, it provided an extra $300 per week in unemployment insurance in addition to the states’ benefits.
It also provided funds for vaccine distribution, coronavirus testing, and contact tracing, as well as more aid for small businesses.
However, Trump claimed that the bill only provided the “bare minimum to the American people.”
He asked Congress to increase the direct payments from “the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple.”
Finally, he signaled that he would not sign the bill in its current form, and he said that unless Congress sent him a “suitable bill,” the “next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package.”
