- President Trump's executive orders and memorandums that are intended to provide some relief from the coronavirus-induced downturn are finding critics from the president's own party.
- Says Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska of the moves: "President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax."
- The executive order allows companies to stop collecting payroll taxes; however workers will still be responsible to pay the taxes by April 15. It also doesn't help workers who are unemployed, points out Grant Thornton Chief Economist Diane Swon.
- And the order on evictions doesn't extend moratoriums, but essentially asks some federal agencies to see what can be done about the matter, says Bharat Ramamurti, a member of the Congressional Oversight Commission.
- Under the memo that would provide a supplemental $400/week in unemployment benefits, the federal government will use money from disaster relief funds and states would have to pay $100 of that amount.
- Bloomberg's Shawn Donnan calculates that the $44B earmarked in Trump's memorandum would cover 30M+ people getting $300 extra per week for five weeks.
- "But to be absolutely clear, it's not straightforward how this is either legal or logistically feasible," said former U.S. Treasury economist Ernie Tedeschi.
- Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, issued a joint statement urging the Republicans to resume negotiations.
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