The President’s tweet came just hours after he instructed the Senate to abandon negotiations, focusing instead on confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
He said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was “not negotiating in good faith” because she insisted on giving money to states the President says are poorly run. He told the Senate to postpone negotiations until after the election.
Democratic nominee and former VP, Joe Biden responded to Trump’s negotiation dismissal with an address to his supporters. He said, “Make no mistake: if you are out of work, if your business is closed, if your child’s school is shut down, if you are seeing layoffs in your community, Donald Trump decided today that none of that matters to him.”
However, the President says that he does support portions of the existing legislation. He responded, “If I am sent a Stand Alone Bill for Stimulus Checks ($1,200), they will go out to our great people IMMEDIATELY. I am ready to sign right now...”
He also says that he is in favor of supporting airlines and small businesses. Another post says, “The House and Senate should immediately approve $25 billion dollars for airline payroll support, and $135 billion dollars for the Paycheck Protection Program for small business. Both of these will be fully paid for with unused funds from the CARES Act. We have this money. I will sign now!”
The stalled negotiations come as the number of deaths increased in rural America. New numbers show a 12 percent increase last week. In fact, in the past two months the number of COVID-related deaths has exceeded a thousand per week in rural America.
Also last week, an additional 68 rural counties moved to the “red zone list.” That is a designation from the White House task forces. more than 2,000 rural counties are now on that list.
Pressure builds over the next aid package.