President Trump signed an executive order today and among its provisions are extending a moratorium on evictions, freezing of student loan repayments and cutting payroll taxes for workers earning less than $110,000. The latter portion of this order is controversial because only Congress can reduce the payroll tax and any reduction in the payroll tax would reduce Social Security and Medicare.
However, I will focus my commentary on the provision of extending enhanced unemployment benefits. Trump's order indicates the enhanced benefits will be extended to the end of 2020 but reduced the amount from $600 to $400 a week with the demand that the states with empty coffers fund 25% of the extension.
As with the payroll tax portion of the Executive Order, the extension of enhanced unemployment benefits is a sham because states cannot administer benefits unless they are authorized by Congress or by the Social Security Act. So states would have to set up a separate system to administer the enhanced benefits for which they haven't got the funds and neither President Trump nor Senate Republicans are prepared to gives states and cities more aid.
Even if Trump had the constitutional authority to embark upon this scheme it would take weeks and possibly months to implement. I doubt the executive order will ever be put into action. I can only hope that this perhaps spurs Congress to try to negotiate a deal one last time. But I doubt Senate Republicans will act with any more good faith than they did during the two and a half months they had to pass the HEROES Act which was passed by House Democrats in mid-May.
President Trump's supporter will undoubtedly praise him as a hero and claim he is throwing us a lifeline. But their idea of a lifeline is throwing a 10 foot rope to someone 100 feet from shore.
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