Last Updated on December 7, 2020
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MI) spoke to President Donald Trump via phone over the weekend and urged the POTUS to veto any so-called congressional COVID-19 relief bill that refuses to authorize $1,200 payments to American citizens, stating, “Working families and individuals ought to be first for COVID relief, and then we’ll talk about everything else.”
A proposed $908 billion “economic relief package” backed by presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Democrat Party would offer no such stimulus to the American people, opting to bail out wealthy multinational corporations and government offices instead.
Though Hawley has signed multiple pieces of legislation in recent weeks that make a mockery of the American people by removing the names of American icons from military bases and replacing American workers with foreign labor, he is promising to veto a bill that does not include stimulus checks.
“I said, ‘I think it’s vital that any relief include direct payments, and I’m not gonna vote for it if it doesn’t.’ And I also urged him to veto any bill that did not have direct payments in it,” Hawley said in reference to his phone call with the President.
The senator stated, “Working families and individuals ought to be first for COVID relief, and then we’ll talk about everything else. I see some of these comments about ‘well, we just don’t have any money left over,’” adding, “We don’t have money left over for people? We can give it to state governments, to businesses, but we don’t have any money for people? I just think that’s crazy.”
Senate Republicans have a history of waffling on stimulus payments. Whether Hawley will actually live up to his promise to veto a bill that does not include stimulus relief for working families remains to be seen.
President Donald Trump has shown a strong interest in sending out another series of stimulus checks, stating in October, “If I am sent a Stand Alone Bill for Stimulus Checks ($1,200), they will go out to our great people IMMEDIATELY.”