The President's executive order concerning the stimulus to replace the one that expired July 31, tells us about the President's failure to govern and his party's failure to act timely on the crisis. And it came down to the last minute because the President and his party in the U.S. Senate could not agree on legislation the U.S. Senate was debating. In fact the republican controlled Senate did not even vote on a stimulus package because 15-20 of their party objected to any stimulus and Trump wanted the republican stimulus to include money unrelated to the pandemic and other issues such as a pause in collecting payroll taxes that finance social security, medicare and medicaid that the democratic party would never accept.
Trump knew all that and that his own U.S. Senate would not vote on any bill so he appointed two ditto heads, one being treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin to negotiate with the democratic controlled House directly and by pass the U.S. Senate. Trump also knew the House would never pause the payroll tax and place social security, medicare and medicaid in jeopardy. They were not going to agree to add military spending in the stimulus as Trump wanted, so as planned all along, Trump shut down the meetings between his team and the House.
The U.S. House passed a $3 trillion stimulus bill in May but the Senate did not address the issue until the week before the existing stimulus expired on July 31. Trump and his party in congress failed the country and its people every step of the way during the pandemic and from day one. The failure to lead and govern has been criminal. The failure to act legislatively to address the stimulus issue falls to Trump and his republican controlled Senate who could not reach agreement among themselves on a stimulus package. This lack of leadership from the President and Mitch McConnell, the senate majority leader was glaring.
The democratic control U.S. House acted timely on the matter and stood tall. It was the one house of congress that did its job and was responsible. The other half, the U.S. Senate failed to do its job and carry out its responsibility to the country and its people. The President of the United States was a no show until his executive order, but by that time, he and his party failed to lead.
