Trump Blames China (???) for Lack of Stimulus
This is my stimulus and news update for Saturday, September 26.
$200 Trump Cards for 65+ Medicare Recipients
Just really quickly, about the $200 Trump Cards I talked about yesterday, there’s still a lot we don’t know, there’s no like official document from the White House giving a lot of info about it yet or anything like that — but in terms of eligibility it seems to be for those aged 65 or older who are on Medicare, there are people on Medicare who are not 65 or older, but Trump doesn’t care about those people — I’m kidding, just kidding (kind of) — but he was focused on seniors, and that 33 million figure seems to be the number of Medicare recipients aged 65 or older.
There are still so many questions, questions about the funding for this thing like I told you yesterday, where’s the money going to come from, is this going to be another fiasco with the mail and where’s my Trump card, but basically we have very little details at this time other than what Trump and Meadows said in the clips I showed you yesterday.
Stimulus Negotiations Update
Now, in terms of stimulus negotiations, yesterday at 3:30 P.M. Eastern Time, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had a phone call regarding stimulus and “agreed to continue their conversation in the days ahead.” This is according to a tweet by Drew Hammill, who is Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff.
Trump Blames Pelosi and China for Lack of Stimulus
Speaking of Pelosi, yesterday at a campaign rally in Newport News, Virginia, Trump blamed Pelosi and, somehow, China for lack of stimulus, here’s the clip.
Trump: We have tremendous unity in the party. Mitch is going a good job. Kevin is doing a good job. We’re going to take over the House. We’re going to take back the House. People are tired of crazy Nancy. They’re tired. We want to get some stimulus out. She doesn’t want to give it. She just doesn’t, only for political reasons, not your fault, you know whose fault it is? China’s fault, that’s whose fault it is.
So Trump said Mitch is doing a great job, obviously referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he said Kevin is doing a great job, referring to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, then he says that Pelosi is blocking stimulus for political reasons.
But you know whose fault it really is? China. You know, the good old People’s Republic, that huge country in East Asia that writes all of your stimulus checks? Yeah, they’re to blame.
And then Trump goes back on-script and gets back to blaming the Dems, here’s the clip.
Trump: But you know, uh, it’s an amazing thing because the Democrats are saying, “Well, it’s the end of a term, and because it…” You know, we have a lot of time left. Think of this. If it were them, don’t forget we don’t have to do it by the election, but we should be, easy, really able, that would be a great victory.
So Trump was basically saying, look, Dems are saying it’s the end of my term, so I shouldn’t do anything, but then Trump said, “Look, I don’t care if it’s the end of the term, I’d love to do it before the election, but even if it’s after the election, hey, that’s cool too,” .
Trump’s Supreme Court Pick (Amy Coney Barrett)
Then he starts talking about the Supreme Court. He later said that hopefully his nominee that he will announce today will be on the court for 50 years.
Trump: At 5:00 tomorrow at the White House we’re going to be naming the nominee who will hopefully be on that Court for 50 years, 5-0. 50. 50 years. Be on there for 50 years.
Now, as I’m sure you’ve heard by now, it was leaked yesterday that Trump is expected to announce federal appellate judge Amy Coney Barrett, whom I mentioned in my stimulus update from September 19, a week ago, as his nominee for associate justice of the Supreme Court.
She is currently young, very young, by Supreme Court standards, 48 years old, but even so, if she’s confirmed, I’m not sure that I would want a 98 year-old on the Supreme Court in 50 years, but who knows, maybe in 2070 one hundred will be the new 80?
On the topic of her age, I’ve seen articles claiming that she would be the youngest Supreme Court justice ever, and these are just wrong. And even in this one here, it says, “If nominated, Coney Barrett would be the youngest Supreme Court justice ever.”
That’s wrong on two counts. First of all, just because she’s nominated, doesn’t even mean she is then a Supreme Court justice, she has to be confirmed and then take the oath of office, for example, four and half years ago, Merrick Garland was nominated by Barack Obama but he did not become a Supreme Court justice.
And second, even if Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed and takes the oath and becomes a Supreme Court justice, she would not be the youngest Supreme Court Justice ever, she would be the youngest on the bench right now, sure, but not the youngest ever.
That record is held by Joseph Story, who in 1812 at the age of 32, became the youngest Supreme Court justice ever, and even John Jay the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was 43 when he took the oath of office and 44 in his inaugural session, but of course people didn’t necessarily live as long back then. I guess moral of the story is don’t get your political news from Marie Claire, let’s leave it at that, I have reached out to Marie Clarie letting them know about the error in this article.
We are still waiting to see the Democrats’ new stimulus proposal as I told you yesterday.
Unemployment Update
In terms of unemployment, half of all states have now depleted their funding for the extra $300 per week. Hawaii has reportedly started processing payments, it looks like they will be paying on a week-by-week basis instead of lump sum like several other states.
South Carolina, hopefully your check is in the mail as I mentioned yesterday, New Jersey looks like it will be a lump sum of $1800 dollars in October, I’ve seen reports of those in California receiving their fourth week this week, others in Washington State getting a lump sum, Delaware should be sending out the second half of the payments next week (they have previously paid for three weeks, now they said they would pay the additional three weeks next week), Virginia expected by the end of the month if you’re in Virginia and have not re-certified I would recommend you do so today on the Gov2Go App.
