Trump to sign executive orders cutting payroll tax and extending jobless benefits

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President Trump announced that he planned to sign executive actions that the White House is drafting to address expired unemployment insurance and to suspend payroll taxes, as congressional negotiations for coronavirus aid continue to drag on.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Trump said the orders could be signed Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. He said a legislative deal was still possible, however.

“Probably tomorrow afternoon. They’re being drawn now,” Trump said when asked when the executive orders would be signed. “We’ll see what happens. It’s possible we’ll make a deal, but it’s also possible we won’t. But I would say probably tomorrow afternoon or maybe the following morning.”

The president is traveling to Ohio, where he is expected to sign a long-awaited “Buy American” order requiring the government to buy essential medicines and medical supplies from U.S. manufacturers.

In a tweet before leaving the White House, Trump said he had instructed the White House to “continue working on an Executive Order with respect to Payroll Tax Cut, Eviction Protections, Unemployment Extensions, and Student Loan Repayment Options.”

Trump has pressed repeatedly for a payroll tax cut, a move backed by outside economic adviser Stephen Moore, a Washington Examiner columnist, but among lawmakers, the cut is less popular.

A federal moratorium on evictions expired at the end of July, exposing tenants of more than 12 million rental units to eviction should they miss a payment. A $600-per-week supplement to unemployment benefits that passed as part of the CARES Act in March has also expired.

Negotiations on a potential fourth stimulus bill have been underway for nearly two weeks; however, Democrats and the White House remain “trillions” of dollars apart, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday.

Meadows said Thursday that Trump would take executive actions on unemployment aid and evictions if a deal could not be reached by the end of the week. “At this point, either we’re going to get serious about negotiating and get an agreement in principle, or it becomes extremely doubtful that we’ll be able to make a deal if it goes well beyond Friday,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on Thursday that Democrats were to blame for the lack of progress and that the chamber would be in session Monday.

“The only thing that gets an outcome is the speaker and the president of the United States reaching an agreement,” McConnell said on Fox News on Wednesday. “And once they do that, I believe that the majority of my members will support it, but not every single one of them. I’ve been clear about that from the beginning.”

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