President Donald J. Trump held a live press conference regarding the “COVID-19 Relief Package”
“I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 (direct payment) to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple.”
“I’m also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a Covid relief package,” adding, “And maybe that administration will be me, and we will get it done.”
The $900 billion stimulus package COVID-19 “Relief” Bill is 5,593 pages long, it was given to lawmakers just six hours before decision to vote, with the bill includes funding for some of the following examples below.
- Funds under Title III of the Act that are made available for assistance for Pakistan, not less than $15,000,000 shall be made available for democracy programs and not less than $10,000,000 shall be made available for gender programs.“
- $86 million for assistance to Cambodia
- $130 million to Nepal
- $135 million to Burma
- $453 million to Ukraine
- $700 million to Sudan.
- Resource Study of Springfield (Illinois) Race Riot.” A riot that occurred in August of 1908 (Wikipedia’s detailed article of the riot.)
- For salaries and expenses of the Joint Economic Committee, $4,203,000, to be disbursed by the Secretary of the Senate. (Here is a list of those on the Committee)
- ‘‘Economic Support Fund’’, not less than $125,000,000 shall be made available for assistance for Egypt, of which $40,000,000 should be made available for
higher education programs, including not less than $15,000,000 for scholarships for Egyptian students
All 5,593 pages of this asinine bill can be read here, in a PDF file released by congress.
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Governor Larry Hogan issued the following statement after Congress passed a COVID-19 relief package:
“After more than eight months of pushing to get this done, I am relieved that Congress has finally passed a COVID-19 relief bill to help struggling families and small businesses. This took much longer than it should have, and the delays were inexcusable.
“While it does not do enough, this bill delivers on a number of top Maryland priorities. It provides critical resources for vaccine distribution, rental assistance, and K-12 education, while extending unemployment insurance programs. For small businesses, the bill extends the Paycheck Protection Program, and makes sure that PPP expenses are tax deductible. Working closely with our regional partners, we were able to prevent massive cuts to WMATA.
“We are deeply disappointed that this package does not include support for state and local governments, which continues to be desperately needed as we battle COVID-19 on the front lines. But with so many people hurting right now, any kind of relief—even if it is only short-term—is certainly better than nothing.
“I want to thank the leaders of the Problem Solvers Caucus, No Labels, and the bipartisan group in the Senate who reached across the aisle to find common ground and craft this compromise. They’ve shown that real bipartisan leadership in Washington is still possible.
“More still needs to be done, including by Congress, to help our economy and our workforce. In Maryland, we have announced more than $600 million in emergency economic relief. And when the General Assembly returns to work for the 2021 session, we will be proposing a larger economic and stimulus relief package to provide further support to our struggling families and small businesses.”
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Steny Hamilton Hoyer, U.S. Representative for Maryland’s 5th Congressional District and current House Majority Leader released the following statement AFTER President Trumps Live Press Conference.
House Democrats have fought for months to provide relief to the American people, which Republicans rejected at every turn. Now that the President has agreed to direct payments of $2000, we will ask for unanimous consent to pass a bill this week to give Americans this assistance.
— Steny (Wear a Mask) Hoyer (@LeaderHoyer) December 23, 2020
