WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his campaign have been racing to score a political boost from a series of weekend executive actions addressing the economic fallout from the coronavirus before the limited impact of the measures comes into focus.
Some GOP strategists warned that any gains from the push, which began within minutes of Trump’s moves on Saturday, were likely to be short-lived — and could pose more political risk than reward, if voters don’t see a direct benefit following the president’s promise of relief.
“It’s too real and present in people’s lives to paper over with talking points or promises,” said Brendan Buck, a Republican communications strategist who served as a top adviser to former Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “If these executive orders don’t really solve the economic crisis, and I doubt they will, then it will only end up hurting him in the long run.”
Aug. 10, 202002:15
After the White House failed to strike a deal with Democrats in Congress following several weeks of talks, Trump signed four executive actions Saturday for coronavirus economic relief: an executive order and three memoranda to defer student loan payments and some payroll taxes through the end of the year; discourage evictions; and provide enhanced unemployment benefits if states agree to contribute money to the program.
By that afternoon, Trump’s campaign was plugging them hard on social media and across the airwaves, with surrogates painting the president as taking real action while trying to link former Vice President Joe Biden to Democrats in Congress who haven’t been able to reach a deal with the White House.
“Congress failed to act and Joe Biden’s allies prevented people from getting their unemployment benefits extended,” said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh. “They are using people’s economic difficulties as a political weapon.”
On Monday, the president sought to attribute gains in the stock market earlier in the day to his executive actions, making sure to return to the point even after having been briefly evacuated from the White House briefing room because of a nearby shooting.
“So I was telling you that the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 are now 50 percent above the March level,” Trump said after returning to the podium in the White House briefing room and resuming his prepared remarks.
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He added that he was looking to cut capital gains taxes and income taxes for the middle class — moves that would also require action by Congress.
But just how much benefit affected workers eventually see from the president’s weekend actions will depend on what states, landlords and employers choose to do — giving Trump and his allies a narrow window to try to get a messaging win before that limited impact becomes apparent.
On the payroll tax, for instance, many employers aren’t expected to make a change to worker’s withholdings, because the same amount of money will still be due by the end of the year.
“It is far from clear that the payroll tax holiday will achieve its intended objective of, as the president said, ‘save American jobs and provide relief to the American workers,’” Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst for Bankrate.com, said in a statement. “First, the action is a deferral of these taxes, not an elimination of them. So, the bill is still due, it just isn’t due in the short-term. Let’s remember it is the unemployed who need help, not so much Americans who are still working and who’d get the benefit.”
Trump has said if he wins re-election, he would continue the extension on the tax cut, though he did not say how — or what he would do to offset any potential impact on Social Security funding.
Aug. 10, 202004:42
On evictions, the president’s order instructed some federal agencies to “consider” whether an extension of the temporary ban might be needed to help combat the spread of the coronavirus, and called on other departments to look for available federal funding that could possibly be used to aid anyone, renter or homeowner, struggling to pay for housing because of conditions created by the pandemic.
But there was nothing in the measure that would stop landlords from taking action against delinquent tenants — now, or in the future. And the directive merely asks agencies to decide whether an evictions ban is necessary and whether aid to tenants might be available, without directing them as to what conclusion to reach, or how quickly they should reach them.
Even the lone move involving more concrete action remained surrounded by question marks: It’s unclear how states, already struggling financially as a result of the coronavirus, would be able to meet their requirement to pay a quarter of the $400 a week in extra unemployment benefits the measure calls on them to provide.
“There is no money sitting in the piggy bank of the previous CARES Act to be reprioritized or reconstituted for this purpose,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “Simply, it does not exist.” He said paying 25 percent of unemployment benefits would cost California an estimated $700 million a week.
On Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany sought to shift the blame for any limited benefits of the executive actions onto Democrats and state officials, saying, for example, that any delay in distribution of the $400 a week unemployment checks would be the fault of states who have to apply for the federal funds.
“This president stood up for the American worker at a time when Democrats refused to do so,” she told reporters.
Trump has been looking to frame the executive actions as both a way to deliver benefits to those who need them and a method of forcing opponents to bend on their negotiating positions, telling reporters Sunday that he had already heard from Democrats about restarting the currently failed aid talks. On Monday, Trump suggested House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were looking to meet in the wake of his actions, though both had already been in talks on a deal with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for several weeks.
“So now Schumer and Pelosi want to meet to make a deal. Amazing how it all works, isn’t it,” Trump tweeted Monday. “Where have they been for the last 4 weeks when they were ‘hardliners,’ and only wanted BAILOUT MONEY for Democrat run states and cities that are failing badly? They know my phone number!”
But that claim could have limited long-term utility as well: As of Monday afternoon, there had actually been no contact between the administration and Pelosi or Schumer on restarting talks, according to two senior Democratic aides.
The best-case scenario for Trump, said Buck, could be if Democrats were to reach a deal on a bill that can pass both chambers and that he was willing to sign — giving the president the chance to claim he was able pressure them into an agreement. If not, he said, blaming Democrats may be a hard sell come Election Day.
“This election is going to be a referendum on his job performance and his ability to actually solve this crisis,” Buck said. “That means he needs real solutions.”
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
