Here’s a shock. After 3.9 years in office, Trump finally said something rational

“It’s called the Covid relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with Covid. Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests while sending the bare minimum to the American people. I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000.”

He’s right on both counts. It’s two kinds of crap

  • Crap: The stimulus check is chickenshit
  • Other crap: The bill is full of bullshit unrelated to COVID.

20 thoughts on “Here’s a shock. After 3.9 years in office, Trump finally said something rational

  1. Also lets check Mike Pence’s latest rally on the issue:

    “Pence told a rally crowd in Florida that progressives and Democrats “want to make rich people poorer, and poor people more comfortable.”

    Wow that’s a winning slogan if I’ve ever heard one. Keep on keeping on GO.

      1. Which is bizarre considering what a Bible thumper he is. Trickle Down Jesus is truly the hero we all need now.

        1. I don’t think these “Christians” really like the actual words of Jesus of Nazareth. I’m not sure why they think they are following him.

          “And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

          That exact phrasing is from the Gospel of Matthew, but the versions in Mark and Luke are almost identical.

          1. No, they prefer the words of a guy named (I am not making this up) Creflo Dollar. He preaches the “prosperity gospel”.

  2. Has anyone considered this is a Republican strategy to kill the bill completely? Think about it. He’s a lame duck President on his way out the door. If he pocket vetos the bill nobody get any check.

    1. Nope. Trump does nothing for the benefit of the party or the country unless it benefits him directly. He is trying to show who is the bigger power in the GOP, himself or Moscow Mitch. At least that is Beau of the Fifth Column’s take on it (he’s on YouTube), and I respect his opinions.

  3. The COVID relief bill is simply part of a larger omnibus spending bill.
    So all of that other spending being listed is simply part of the larger bill that the COVID relief makes up a smaller part of.
    The news media has done a shitty job of explaining that issue, so both sides of the aisle keep talking about the “COVID relief bill” when that is not solely what the bill is about.

    1. Agree, I think all the media thinks we care about is “How big is my check ?” There could be a rider about Kill every firstborn and it might get one sentence in the second-to-last paragraph.

    2. Isn’t that his point? He can’t specifically veto the insufficient COVID relief bill, can he? In order to do so, doesn’t he have to veto the Consolidated Appropriations Act, thereby defunding the government? This really ought to be about 12 separate bills, but it absolutely should be at least three.

      Divisions A through L are annual appropriations.

      Divisions M and N are Corona relief

      Divisions O through FF contain some 3,000 pages of additional legislation that have nothing to do with coronavirus relief and annual appropriations. Much of it is unnecessary. Some of it seems misguided. So in order to keep the government open, Trump has to agree to fund all the bullshit and accept insufficient COVID relief.

      In a better world, he would be able to sign Divisions A through L and veto the rest. He would veto the Corona portion because it is insufficient, and tell Congress to fix it. He would veto the third portion because it’s too full of pork, and tell Congress to resubmit it as separate bills, many of which would be vetoed and sustained.

      On the other hand, he’s had plenty of time to weigh in on this matter during the negotiation process, and he has not paid much attention before now. (And he supposedly has had Mnuchin right there in the midst of the negotiations.)

  4. I have no disagreement with this, I do wonder Trump’s play here though. I imagine it has to do with whatever his post-Presidency plans are. I do hope he splits the Republican party though and actually pays offs by taking his horribleness and his cult’s anger out within though.

    I would say this puts the GOP in a bind in Georgia having to get the runoff Senators on the record about being against more stimulus, but apparently they’re running from the media and any questions they get like the chicken shit they are.

    By all means Trump, start your own third party, and take your cult with you.

    1. Well, one thing he’s done–which he’s always been good at–is pull attention away from his normal criminal bullshit, in this case the latest round of pardons.

      1. FDR 2,819 pardons
        Truman 1,913
        Eisenhower 1,110
        Wilson 1,087
        Johnson 960
        Nixon 863
        Coolidge 773
        Hoover 672
        JFK 472
        Clinton 396
        Reagan 393
        Taft 383
        Harding 386
        Ford 382
        McKinley 291
        Obama 212
        W. Bush 189
        H.W. Bush 74
        Trump 45

        1. MISSING from the list: Jimmy Carter, who pardoned more than 210,000, more than all other presidents added together.

          Unless you count Andrew Johnson, who pardoned all the confederate officials and soldiers for their treason against the USA.

          (Reagan did not technically issue pardons to those three million immigrants, but signing that bill was the rough equivalent of a pardon.)

          These things always get politicized. The left criticizes Trump for pardons even though he has given fewer than anyone since Garfield, and the right criticizes Obama for executive orders, even though he issued fewer per year than any president since Grover Cleveland’s first term.

          It always seems worse when it’s the guy you oppose.

          Of course that is balanced out by:

          (1) Trump is not finished. As of now he has already raised that number above the 45 listed here, and has promised many more. Let’s see what the final count looks like. You can’t compare a sitting president to a former president because they issue so many pardons on the way out the door. For instance, Garfield and Tippecanoe issued none since their single terms ended prematurely. (On the other hand, JFK handed them out quite freely, despite his lack of a planned exit.)

          (2) Trump has issued at least one that is obviously corrupt (Stone) and some others that are on the borderline (Flynn, Papadopoulos, van der Zwaan …), while reputedly considering still more. Others are pardons of corrupt politicians who were rightfully convicted but happened to support Trump, and some might argue that those pardons are also corrupt. That sort of action puts him in a whole different class.

  5. if there’s one thing you can be 10000% sure of, it’s that Trump is doing something solely for personal benefit, not because it’s good for anyone else.

  6. I think what Trump is doing is basically sending an F.U to the Republican Congressional leadership in this. I don’t think he gives a rat’s ass if the money sent is $600, $2,000 or $0.

    The reality is that the Trump Administration had the opportunity to weigh in on this for the length of the Congressional negotiations, but did nothing.

    After it’s all negotiated, with the Republican Congressional leadership and rank and file members holding firm on the deal being under $1 trillion in total relief, because now they care about the deficit and debt again, Trump undercuts them by proposing something that will raise the total to well over $1 trillion.

    I agree with Trump’s words, but nobody should be under any illusion he suddenly cares about anybody other than himself.

    1. I suppose Trump could also be making a play for public affection, either to support his attempt to stay in office or to bolster his future political influence. But given Trump’s petty nature, Adam is more likely to be right. I agree with all his other points.

  7. I feel so weird, he said something I partially agree with. I agree with the posted part, it was the rest of the diatribe that I did not agree with. but hey, once in four years…

  8. Trump can actually make sense when he speaks without stopping to think, IMO. It’s the attempt to think and to gauge what is to his personal advantage that trips him up.

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