Stimulus talks scrapped off unilaterally by Trump leaving millions of Americans gasping

Last updated on October 9th, 2020 at 11:55 pm

President Donald Trump stirred up the country as he ordered his team of negotiators to step back from talks around new stimulus package. The move, that is as stunning and unbelievable as it can get, has put an end to the last minute efforts to pass the most essential and major economic relief package to provide support to millions of Americans who are struggling to reel through the coronavirus crisis. The two sides had been on struggling ends for months to reach a deal, but this announcement by the President has halted all the efforts.

Tuesday afternoon President Trump’s official Twitter account was in overdrive with a series of tweets. On one such tweet President wrote, “I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Businesses.”

The announcement took everyone by surprise, specially the lawmakers, since the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been working on negotiations and proposals for days in hope of coming to a deal with minimum disagreements. The decision of plugging the stimulus talks has jeopardized Americans who are struggling from the pandemic. The recovery package was initially passed by Congress in spring for $2.2 trillion. Most of that stimulus has been spent.

Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve Chairman on Tuesday said in a plea for action that more support is very crucial and imperative in coming months.

The sudden ‘reckless’ decision by Trump has perplexed the Republicans who have been caught off guard. The deal was least threatening for upcoming elections, in fact could have been a plus point for Trump against Biden had the deal been finalized. Now with tanked stimulus talks, Republicans fear that it could be used by Democrats to pin blame on White House for halted talks as voters are anyways squirming for a relief in Washington.

House Speaker Democratic Nancy Pelosi slammed the President’s announcement and said, “Clearly, the White House is in complete disarray.” She continued, “Today, once again, President Trump showed his true colours: putting himself first at the expense of the country, with the full complicity of the GOP Members of Congress. Walking away from coronavirus talks demonstrates that President Trump is unwilling to crush the virus.”

Impact of Trump’s tweet on markets

President Trump’s tweet of single-handedly tanking the stimulus talks set the market on a roller coaster ride on Tuesday as the markets saw a sharp drop at the day’s closing, and then a pre-market bump later.

The halted stimulus package talks mean that no federal relief is coming for unemployed, small business owners in a loss, airlines who are bearing huge loss, service sector, any time soon, at least not until the elections are over.