Stimulus Checks: Donald Trump Opposes Further Payments, Wants Payroll Tax Cut Instead

Despite previously floating the idea of a second stimulus payment for Americans, it appears that [...]

By Christian Long

Despite previously floating the idea of a second stimulus payment for Americans, it appears that President Donald Trump has cooled on the idea. Speaking to press at a near-daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, the president was asked directly about the possibility of another round of checks for citizens impacted by the pandemic. As Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs tweeted, it was less than enthusiastic.

"I like the idea of payroll tax cuts," Trump replied. His answer was significantly different from the one he gave on April 6, when he sounded enthusiastic about another stimulus payment to individuals. "We could very well do a second round," he said at the time. "It is absolutely under serious consideration."

Currently, the government is just over halfway done with issuing out the existing $1,200 for individuals, as well as $500 for each dependent. While the payments are slated for most, but not all, American citizens, there has been no shortage of issues with the rollout. Payments were being deposited into the wrong accounts, while paper checks were delayed. Although if another stimulus payment gets issued, that's unlikely to be an issue going forward.

While the IRS has been unable to offer phone support for those looking for answers on their payment, they recently did revamp the Get My Payment tracker tool to help make things easier for anyone who's anxiously awaiting the check's arrival. After its initial launch, there was so much traffic to IRS.gov that it crashed the website entirely.

The initial payment was part of the CARES Act, a $2 trillion relief package that was signed into law on March 27. There's currently another piece of legislation, The Emergency Money for the People Act, that would guarantee monthly payments of up to $2,000. The bill was introduced by Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, and would guarantee payments for at least six months, or until employment levels return to their pre-pandemic levels. As it's currently written, every American adult making less than $130,000 annually would be eligible, even those whose employment wasn't impacted by COVID-19.

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