Does Anyone Honestly Believe Trump Wants To Give Americans a $2000 Stimulus Check?

 

A couple of days ago I quipped the COVID Stimulus Bill would be signed by President Trump "barring any shenanigans".

Well, here comes Trump and his shenanigans. While he has not vetoed the bill, Trump has indicated that he will not sign it unless every American is given a $2,000 stimulus check instead of the $600 agreed to bill in the legislation.

Naturally, a $2,000 stimulus check is better than a $600 stimulus check. But does anyone honestly believe President Trump wants to give every American a $2,000 stimulus check?

After all, President Trump lied within a matter of seconds when he claimed at the outset of his four minute statement, "Throughout the summer, Democrats cruelly blocked COVID relief legislation."

The Democrat controlled House passed a $3 trillion HEROES Act and a slimmed down $2.2 trillion HEROES Act in May and in October respectively both of which included stimulus checks of $1200.

It is Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who cruelly ignored both bills. 

As for President Trump, I didn't see him putting pressure to bear on McConnell to agree to a $2,000 stimulus check let alone a $1,200 check last spring, summer or fall. Nor did he promise to propose a $2,000 stimulus check to Congress if re-elected. So none of this is being said or done in good faith which is standard operating procedure for Trump. Indeed, Trump is as pissed off at McConnell for accepting the election results as he is at Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. 

After calling for an increase in the stimulus check, Trump called upon a Congress to send him "a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package. And maybe that next administration will be me and we will get it done."

No, the next administration will not be headed up Donald Trump. But in making this statement, Trump might have done President-elect Biden a favor. Good faith or bad faith, Trump did publicly call for a $2,000 stimulus check. This will give Biden a great deal of latitude when making his own stimulus proposals once he takes office four weeks from tomorrow.

Of course, that latitude will have a much longer span if Georgia sees fit to elect Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the Senate 15 days before Biden takes office.