Dems Slam Trump’s Executive Actions, Biden Calls Payroll Tax Cut ‘A Reckless War On Social Security'

TOPLINE

With Democrats and Republicans unable to reach agreement on a stimulus package, President Donald Trump asserted executive power on Saturday by signing four actions intended to provide coronavirus relief to Americans, which resulted in immediate and harsh criticism from many prominent Democrats, including Joe Biden, and some Republicans as well.

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a graphic from a study he says names the United States as the ... [+] country most prepared to handle a pandemic during a news conference and meeting with African American supporters in the Cabinet Room at the White House February 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. The president talked about the economic advances African Americans have made under his administration, about the government's response to the global coronavirus threat and how dishonest he thinks the news media can be to him. He did not answer reporters' questions about the S&P 500 taking its worst loss in almost nine years. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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KEY FACTS

After negotiations on a second stimulus package collapsed, Trump, from his private golf club in New Jersey, took matters into his own hands, signing an executive order and three memoranda to defer payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare, extend enhanced unemployment benefits at a lower level, provide student loan relief and freeze eviction of renters from properties with federally guaranteed mortgages.

Trump vowed that his actions "will take care of this entire situation," and that he was forced to act after "Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have chosen to hold this vital assistance hostage."

Democrats are expected to challenge the president's actions in court.

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, released a statement Saturday night calling Trump's plan to cut payroll taxes "a reckless war on Social Security."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued a joint statement Saturday evening characterizing Trump's actions as "unworkable, weak and narrow" that would "slash the unemployment benefits that millions desperately need and endanger seniors' Social Security and Medicare."

The harshest criticism from a prominent Republican came courtesy of Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who declared, "The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop."

Key Background:

Trump pressed for payroll tax cuts earlier in the year and reiterated in July that he was seriously considering such action. Republicans last month expressed relatively blunt opposition. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said a payroll tax cut would be a "public relations problem" and would have little economic impact. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) warned that a payroll tax cut "divides our conference." Critics pointed out that since payroll tax payments are only being deferred until Dec. 31, though Trump asked the Treasury to explore ways to cancel the debt, employers may well continue to deduct it from wages to avoid problems once the tax becomes due.

Critical Quote:

On November 20, 2014, when Barack Obama was in office, Donald Trump tweeted: "Repubs must not allow Pres Obama to subvert the Constitution of the US for his own benefit & because he is unable to negotiate w/ Congress."

Chief Critic:

"This is no art of the deal. This is not presidential leadership," Mr. Biden said in a scathing statement released by his campaign. "These orders are not real solutions. They are just another cynical ploy designed to deflect responsibility. Some measures do far more harm than good." Biden went on to call the executive actions "half-baked measures" and said Trump has "golfed rather than negotiated, and sown division rather than pull people together to get a package passed."

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