Trump's executive order on pandemic aid fills gap on Capitol Hill, hushes Democrats - especially nuthouse Nancy.

President Trump’s pen is turning out to be pretty hefty.

Critics complained vigorously and predicted a flood of lawsuits 
when Mr. Trump flexed his executive powers to order an extension 
of unemployment benefits and other pandemic assistance. House 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, called the executive 
orders “absurdly unconstitutional.”

Yet nearly a month later, Mrs. Pelosi, who has sued over myriad 
other Trump policies, has not filed a coronavirus lawsuit. 
Neither have other major Trump opponents.

Instead, governors rushed to sign up for the unemployment 
benefits, and Democrats were among the most enthusiastic.

In addition to the unemployment boost, Mr. Trump on Aug. 8 
issued directives attempting to suspend evictions, to delay 
student loan repayments and to grant a payroll tax deferral. 
Those plans have taken longer to materialize, but the 
president’s moves did fill the gap left by Capitol Hill, which 
has been gridlocked for months over provisions in another round 
of coronavirus assistance.

Congress returns this week from a summer vacation, and lawmakers 
have insisted that they will step up to tackle the big issues.

The federal government needs new funding by Sept. 30 or will 
have to shut down, and all sides are eyeing another round of 
coronavirus relief.

House Democrats have powered through a $3 trillion package with 
another round of unemployment benefits and a massive infusion of 
cash for state and local governments. Senate Republicans are 
looking for a vote on a much slimmer package, perhaps $1 
trillion, with a smaller unemployment benefit and a new round of 
assistance for businesses.

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said Sunday that the 
administration and Mrs. Pelosi have agreed to government funding 
at least through Election Day on Nov. 3.

“We haven’t agreed on the specific details, but my expectation 
would be [the funding will last] through the beginning of 
December. That’s what we did this year,” Mr. Mnuchin told Fox. 
“For now, the most important thing is that at the end of the 
month we don’t shut down the government and we get something 
past the election.”

But he signaled that coronavirus relief negotiations are tougher.

“Where we’re really stuck is both on certain policy issues but 
more importantly on the top line,” Mr. Mnuchin told Fox. “The 
speaker has refused to sit down and negotiate unless we agree to 
something like a 2½ trillion-dollar deal in advance. … Let’s do 
a more targeted bill now. If we need to do more in 30 days, 
we’ll continue to do more.”

Mr. Mnuchin also took a victory lap for Friday’s job numbers, 
which showed that the economy added 1.4 million jobs in August 
and that the unemployment rate fell to 8.4%.

Those numbers are far better than economists predicted just a 
few months ago, when the Congressional Budget Office, the 
government’s chief scorekeeper, said the unemployment rate would 
be above 10% for another year.

But the trade-off is perhaps tens of thousands more lives lost 
because of a reopened economy.

Mr. Trump is pushing for a still faster recovery.

A centerpiece of his executive actions last month was a payroll 
tax deferral. Mr. Trump directed the Treasury Department to 
grant a delay on taxes due so workers don’t have to have payroll 
taxes deducted from their checks for the rest of this year.

But under the law, they would still owe the amount, likely in a 
lump sum next year.

Mr. Trump has insisted that if he wins reelection, he will fight 
to waive the repayment and turn the payroll tax holiday into a 
tax cut.

The hiccup for Mr. Trump is that payroll taxes are deducted from 
paychecks, and the money goes to fund Social Security. That 
means businesses must agree to change their accounting for 
workers to see the money now.

Democrats also claim, wrongly, that the holiday undermines 
Social Security’s finances. In fact, since the money is still 
owed, the program’s underpinning remains solid, though that 
could change if Mr. Trump makes the holiday permanent.

In an effort to kick-start the process, the administration has 
said it will impose the holiday for federal workers.

The American Federation of Government Employees last week 
demanded that federal workers be given a choice and said Mr. 
Trump’s deferral scheme “has the makings of a fiasco.”

The student loan payment delay is the most straightforward of 
the four policies Mr. Trump announced in early August. It 
continues a policy put into place during the coronavirus crisis 
to grant a reprieve on repaying loans.

Mr. Trump’s eviction moratorium could face a lawsuit. Landlords 
have sued some states that imposed bans on evictions, and they 
are reportedly pondering whether to take on Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump’s extra unemployment benefits, which some analysts 
deem the most legally suspect, have also proved the most popular.

As of late last week 46 governors had been granted unemployment 
checks of $300 or $400 a week per worker on top of what states 
were paying. Among them are prominent Trump critics including 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and 
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.

The money was paid as a lost wages grant through the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency.

Congress, in one of its early coronavirus packages, granted a 
$600-a-week plus-up. As businesses started to reopen, some 
workers refused to go back because they were making more money 
from unemployment benefits.

One Democratic aide called the president’s moves “fake orders.”

“Terrible leadership from the worst deal-maker in the history of 
the presidency,” said the aide.

Rep. Ann Kuster of New Hampshire, vice chair of the New Democrat 
Coalition, said there is still a need for a big package from 
Capitol Hill.

“Many of the measures from the president’s executive orders in 
August have yet to kick in, and unfortunately provided little 
certainty to American renters who are facing evictions because 
it did not ban evictions,” she said. “Democrats and Republicans 
need to work together to provide meaningful and lasting relief 
for Americans who have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 
pandemic.”

• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.

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legal-threats-quiet-trump-pandemic-ai/