Donald Trump isn’t saying that he would support a fourth coronavirus relief bill. But he made it clear that if another relief bill became inevitable, it was going to contain provisions designed to jump-start the economy.
Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse! The elimination of Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table. Also lawsuit indemnification & business deductions for restaurants & ent.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2020
Could this be the beginning of negotiations for another stimulus bill? Democrats won’t give Trump tax cuts without Republicans voting for a state government bailout. Republicans won’t vote for that unless the bill includes tax cuts. There’s a deal there somewhere.
Many Senate Republicans have pushed back on plans to enact additional rounds of government spending to combat the economic damage wrought by coronavirus. The four relief bills that have already been passed have allocated roughly $3 trillion in support for businesses and direct checks to Americans.
“‘No more spending’ has really become the rallying cry of the right,” Stephen Moore, president of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, told the New York Times. “We’ve done the spending, it didn’t work, and now we need to try something else. There is going to be civil war in Congress over this.”
But some GOP Senators disagree.
Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) on Tuesday defended his push for more spending to offset the effects of the pandemic.
“The concerns we have about deficit spending now are going to look like a walk in the park,” Hawley told CBS. “Bold action now to get people to jobs back is not wasteful spending; it’s critical.”
But most Republicans are sick of throwing money at the problem — and down a black hole.
“There’s no question we can do a better job of tailoring these programs to help those most impacted by this pandemic and putting responsible guardrails around this funding,” Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman told the Daily Caller when asked if he was concerned with the amount of money being spent.
Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines told the Daily Caller that not only should we be worried about spending, but that there needs to be an investigation into China’s role in the coronavirus outbreak.
Senator Pat Toomey worries about the deficits and the additional debt burden we’re taking on.
“In the past two months, Congress spent nearly $3 trillion and authorized the Fed to lend well over $2 trillion more to stave off an economic collapse. This is more than one-quarter of our entire annual GDP,” Toomey told the Daily Caller.
“As a result, our national debt is about to hit $25 trillion, our deficit this year will be double the worst year of the financial crisis, and we are risking higher interest rates and inflation. Rather than yet another spending blowout, Congress should focus on re-opening our economy safely. Government spending can never be a substitute for a functioning economy,” Toomey continued.
The budget deficit won’t get any lower with tax cuts. But that money will largely go to businesses that will create jobs and wealth. A payroll tax cut would boost worker’s pay and put money in the local economies.
The quickest way to economic recovery is tax cuts. Trump knows this which is why, as the pandemic becomes less of a crisis, finding a way to supercharge production will be the key to quickly getting America back on its feet.
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