If you’ve been counting down the moments until you get your hands on another $1,200 stimulus check, you’re probably feeling very disappointed. Negotiations on another stimulus package continue to be at a standstill, and that’s even though unextended unemployment benefits included in the CARES Act expired on July 31st. 

There is plenty of hope a deal could be reached in the next few weeks, but the second round of stimulus could look entirely different than the first.

For example, it’s possible the next round of stimulus payments could come in at the same $1,200 for individuals and their dependents, but there’s also a chance individual payment amounts will be less robust.

Here’s what we know so far, and some updates on the assistance you could receive from the federal government over the coming weeks and months. 

Forbes Advisor$600 Unemployment‌ ‌Benefits‌ ‌Boost‌:‌ ‌How‌ ‌Much‌ ‌Could ‌You‌ ‌Receive?‌

5.4 Million Americans are at Risk

First off, where are we now? While new coronavirus cases appear to be slowing down nationwide and the stock market is definitely on an upswing, Morning Consult economist John Leer writes that we are not out of the woods yet when it comes to the economy. 

According to recent analysis, as many as 5.4 million unemployed Americans may not be able to cover living expenses without some help in the form of extended unemployment benefits by the end of August. This includes regular bills most Americans have, ranging from their rent payments to groceries, auto payments, and insurance  Without more assistance, 9.2 millions could face the same fate by the end of September, Leer notes. 

It is also crucial to understand that job losses caused by COVID-19 have not stopped, meaning the financial pain felt by Americans could get even worse. “As the virus spreads and employers shrink their workforces, more Americans will become unemployed,” writes Leer. 

With more bad news potentially on its way, the next round of economic stimulus may not even be the last. 

What Happens Next

Congress is still debating inclusions on a final package, yet Republicans and Democrats appear to be far from reaching a compromise. Plenty of proposals have been suggested on both sides of the aisle, yet they’re all slightly unique and the price tags for each vary by billions of dollars. 

The HEALS Act, which was proposed by Senate Republicans in July, would include $1,200 in stimulus payments to individuals and $500 per qualified dependent, which mimics payments made in the CARES Act which passed in March. This act also includes extended unemployment benefits, small business support, increased spending on education and healthcare and more. The cost of the HEALS Act, as originally proposed, would be $1.1 trillion. 

However, the HEROES Act, which was passed by House Democrats in May, would give individuals $1,200 each and another $1,200 for dependents. However, the HEROES Act limits dependents to three, so the maximum a family could receive is capped at $6,000. At over $3 trillion dollars, the HEROES Act also includes a range of benefits meant to help bolster small businesses, provide student loan debt relief, reduce taxes and more. 

Both the HEALS Act and the HEROES Act also include adult dependents in the calculation (unlike the CARES Act), so families with kids in college or disabled adult children stand to benefit. 

Another idea, called the Coronavirus Assistance for American Families Act, would include $1,000 stimulus payments for individuals and dependents. This plan would use the same formula as the CARES Act to phase out high earners, with individuals earning $75,000 or more and couples earning over $150,000 per year seeing their stimulus payment phased out. While stimulus payments would be lower with this plan, families with children stand to benefit more due to the higher payment for each dependent. 

Obviously, it will take more negotiation for Congress to reach a compromise of these options and others that have been proposed, yet we don’t know how quickly an agreement might be reached. 

In the interim, President Trump has stated an executive order may be on its way to handle some of the most pressing issues Americans face. His executive order could include a payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits to replace the $600 unemployment checks that expired on July 31st, protection from eviction for renters and homeowners, and extended student loan repayment benefits. 

The Bottom Line

If you’re eagerly awaiting another stimulus payment or news on extended unemployment benefits, all you can do is wait it out. The same can be said if you’re stuck wondering if interest on your federal student loans will begin accruing again beyond September 30th, and if you’ll have to start making payments again. It’s always possible an agreement could be reached by Congress next week, but nobody knows for sure. 

With 30 million Americans losing out on the additional $600 in weekly unemployment benefits they were receiving as of July 31st, time is of the essence. Only time will tell what the next stimulus package will look like, what it will include, and who will be helped the most.

Source Article from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jrose/2020/08/07/600-unemployment-checks-and-second-stimulus-check-update—heres-what-we-know/

Republicans, who are pressing for a narrow recovery measure, are likely to take the jobs report, which beat economists’ expectations, as confirmation of their argument that it is time to scale back federal help, including slashing a $600 weekly enhanced unemployment benefit. Democrats warned that the report showed a significant slowdown in the pace of job creation from June, giving them additional grounds to call for robust continued aid, including a full reinstatement of the jobless payments, which lapsed last week.

Economists expect a further slowdown for August.

“There is lingering concern that the fiscal package talks in D.C. are gridlocked, and news that the economy continues to add jobs may reduce the sense of urgency to get a deal done,” David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Private Wealth Management, said shortly after the report was released. But, he added, he still expects lawmakers to strike a compromise next week.

The Thursday talks, held in the Capitol Hill offices of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, turned so contentious that Ms. Pelosi said Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, had slammed the table at one point, an accusation Mr. Meadows denied.

On Friday, Mr. Meadows, Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and Mr. Schumer gathered in Ms. Pelosi’s office around 1:30 p.m. for a negotiation session.

Mr. Trump has threatened to act on his own if no deal can be reached, telling reporters that he could move as soon as Friday or Saturday to sign executive orders to forestall evictions, suspend payroll-tax collection and provide unemployment aid and student loan relief. But it was not clear that he had the power to do so without Congress, which controls spending — or whether any actions he takes that survive court challenges would suffice to prop up the slowing recovery.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/world/covid-19-news.html

President Trump has been narrowing the gap in recent weeks with Democratic challenger Joe Biden both in national polling and in some key battlegrounds — a development his new campaign manager is crediting in part to his relaunched coronavirus briefings.

This is not to say the president is in comeback territory. His approval ratings remain deeply underwater, and he’s trailed Biden in virtually every national poll since the beginning of the year, even before the coronavirus pandemic, racial unrest and more presented an unprecedented test to his presidency.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN RE-LAUNCHES AD STRATEGY WITH NEW FOCUS ON KEY EARLY VOTING STATES

The latest RealClearPolitics national polling average, though, shows Trump trailing Biden by just over six points, compared with nine points a month ago.

More significantly, the race is tightening in some key swing states.

In Florida, Biden is leading by four points, according to the RCP average, down from roughly eight points in late July.

And Trump is also seeing a tightening in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, trailing Biden by roughly five points in each — though the needle has not moved much in Michigan.

This comes as the Trump administration continues to face criticism for its pandemic response, amid rising COVID-19 cases and concerns about the impact of resulting lockdown measures on the economy.

His new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, however, cites as a positive factor the resumption of near-daily coronavirus briefings from the White House, which the president had been holding early on but suspended in late spring.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Stepien said that when the president speaks, “it’s a needle mover.”

“He also happens to be the leader of the free world, and anytime he steps behind a podium as he does every night unlike Joe Biden, it gets covered and it matters and it’s noteworthy and it’s a needle mover,” Stepien told Bloomberg.

“His instincts are strong and there’s no one better at the podium than him,” he continued. “That is a net positive every day of the week, polling shows it.”

Stepien also told Bloomberg that the “hidden Trump vote,” or what the president himself calls “the silent majority,” will help the president’s reelection.

“These are voters that always need to be looked after, cared for and paid attention to, because if you lose focus on them, if you take for granted key parts of the electorate like that, there’s a chance that they stay at home or vote a different way,” Stepien told Bloomberg.

TRUMP CORONAVIRUS BRIEFINGS ARE BACK 

Stepien joined the campaign last month, taking the reins from Brad Parscale.

Since Stepien took the helm, the president has seemed to adjust his tone on the outbreak, highlighting the importance of face masks as “patriotic,” urging all Americans to wear them and follow health and safety guidelines.

The campaign also briefly paused running television ads, allowing Stepien to take time to review its strategy.

On Monday, the campaign resumed airing national ads with what officials called a “smarter, more strategic” approach focused on early-voting states.

“The countdown clock may show 91 days left in the race, but in reality, the election starts a lot sooner than that,” Stepien told Fox News on Monday. “In many states, more than half of voters will cast their votes well before Election Day and we have adjusted our strategy to reflect that.”

In a piece of positive news, it was reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 1.8 million jobs in July even as many states had to pause or curtail reopening efforts.

The payroll increase reported Friday by the Labor Department was nonetheless well below the 4.8 million jobs created in June, the highest ever recorded. The unemployment rate fell to 10.2%, down from 11.1% in June.

The Trump campaign touted the gains and accused Biden of rooting for economic decline in a statement:

“The last three months have seen a total of 9.3 million jobs created and they represent the single greatest three-month period of job-creation in American history. … Everyone knows that Joe Biden was hunkered down in his basement hoping for a gloomy economic report to help him politically, which puts him in the pathetic position of being a candidate for President of the United States hoping for bad news for Americans.”

But Biden said in a statement that there’s more work to do, and he has a plan to rebuild:

“It did not have to be this bad. We are in a deeper economic hole than we should be because of Donald Trump’s historic failure to respond to the pandemic, and the pace of recovery has now slowed because of Trump’s continuing inability to come up with a plan to control the virus. … Trump’s surrender to the pandemic has led to a resurgence of the virus and more economic pain and anxiety for millions of Americans. After six months of a nation in crisis, he still has no plan to get us through.”

FOX Business Network’s Megan Henney contributed to this report. 

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2020-polls-tighten-trump-narrows-gap-with-biden-as-campaign-chief-credits-coronavirus-briefings

  • Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, on Thursday rowed back a comment suggesting that African Americans do not have diverse political views while Latinos do.
  • “What you all know but most people don’t know, unlike the African American community with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community,” Biden said earlier Thursday.
  • Biden later tweeted that African Americans are “not a monolith.” He also pledged to listen more.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, on Thursday rowed back a comment suggesting that African American communities are not diverse.

“What you all know but most people don’t know, unlike the African American community with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community, with incredibly different attitudes about different things,” he told NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro earlier Thursday.

“You go to Florida, you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than when you do when you’re in Arizona,” he continued. “So it’s a very different — a very diverse community.”

You can see a clip of those remarks here and a fuller segment on Yahoo News.

Yahoo News said representatives from the national associations of Black and Hispanic journalists were at the interview.

Later on Thursday, Biden clarified his remarks on Twitter, saying he did not mean to suggest that African Americans were a monolith. He did not apologize outright.

“Earlier today, I made some comments about diversity in the African American and Latino communities that I want to clarify,” he wrote. “In no way did I mean to suggest the African American community is a monolith—not by identity, not on issues, not at all.”

Symone Sanders, a senior adviser to the Biden campaign, also told ABC News that he was “referring to diversity of attitudes among Latinos,” according to ABC News.

Footage of Biden’s remarks were disseminated on social media by the conservative Media Research Center and GOP War Room.

President Donald Trump also told reporters on Thursday that Biden “totally disparaged and insulted the Black community.”

“What he said is incredible, and I don’t know what’s going on with him,” Trump said.

Biden drew criticism from Black voters in May after telling the “Breakfast Club” radio show, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”

He later said he regretted the comments. “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” he said, according to the BBC.

Biden is expected to formally become the Democratic presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention later this month. However, he will be doing so virtually from his home in Delaware rather than traveling to Milwaukee because of coronavirus concerns.

Several national polls have found Trump trailing Biden, sometimes by double digits, according to CNN.

Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-rows-back-suggestion-african-american-community-not-diverse-2020-8

When President Donald Trump late Thursday issued an executive order to effectively ban WeChat in 45 days, it was a devastating blow to the U.S. users who rely on the app to communicate with family and friends in China. 

WeChat operates a slew of services, such as ride hailing and making payments, within the app in China, but its flagship service is its messaging platform. It’s picked up little traction in the United States compared with China, but the Chinese-owned messaging service is key for people who need to communicate between the two. 

Banning the app would give those who use it with no other option to quickly communicate for free with friends and family in China. It’s impossible for users to just switch over to U.S.-based messaging platforms, since China has already blocked the apps that Americans rely on, such as Facebook‘s Messenger and Instagram, Google and Snapchat.

WhatsApp, another popular global messaging service owned by Facebook, is also blocked in the country. Users can access the apps by going through a virtual private network, or VPN, but that’s often inconsistent and not an easy fix. 

The bans of U.S.-based apps in China have allowed WeChat to swoop in and become a key service for funneling communication between the two countries. 

For example, I didn’t realize the prevalence of WeChat until four years ago, when a good friend went to visit her family in China for a month. Instead of relying on our usual Apple iMessage or Facebook Messenger to chat, we moved to WeChat. She explained that it’s the only way for her to message family members daily updates or have regular calls with them. A ban would effectively cut off easy communication between millions of families. 

The executive order has already scared investors. WeChat is owned by the tech giant Tencent, which saw shares fall 5.04% on Friday. Tencent is also a titan in the video gaming space, with stakes in companies such as Activision Blizzard and Riot Games, so the repercussions could extend beyond WeChat.

“We are reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding,” a Tencent spokesperson told CNBC in an email. 

The United States has recently ramped up its rhetoric against Chinese tech companies, with most of the attention going to TikTok, a social media platform operated by ByteDance. But Microsoft has already emerged as a strong contender to acquire TikTok’s U.S. business. There are no apparent leaders looking to save WeChat’s business in the U.S., meaning it could get left behind.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/07/trump-banning-wechat-would-be-devastating-blow-to-some-chinese-families.html

Lebanese President Michel Aoun says there are two possible causes of Tuesday’s explosion that killed nearly 150 people – either negligence or “external intervention” by a missile or a bomb.

The blast is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port since 2013. The cause of the initial fire is unknown.

Aoun said Friday that he asked France for satellite images to see if there were warplanes or missiles in the air at the time of the blast. This differs from the main narrative of recent days, which focused on port officials. 

Aoun told journalists that he received information on July 20 about the stored material and “immediately ordered” military and security officials to do what was necessary. He did not elaborate. He said several governments in charge since 2013 received warnings about the material.

He said the investigation is concentrating on 20 persons. He rejected an international investigation into the blast, saying that it will make us “lose the truth.”

The explosion had the force of at least 500 tons of TNT, according to a U.S. government source who was not authorized to speak publicly. The estimate was based on the widespread destruction, said the source, who has experience with military explosives.

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/08/07/beirut-explosion-due-negligence-missile-says-lebanon-president/3317722001/

Mr. Cuomo has left most of the details about how to actually reopen safely to individual school districts, which have spent the summer creating reopening plans to be approved by the State Education Department. Districts across the state are tentatively planning to reopen late in August or early next month. New York City is scheduled to start school on Sept. 10.

The challenges facing all districts are myriad, but especially so in New York City, the nation’s largest school system, and the only major district in America currently planning to reopen even part-time.

New York City and other districts across the state are still finalizing strategies that allow for social distancing in school buildings, trying to find enough nurses to staff school buildings, and upgrading or replacing ventilation systems in classrooms. Districts are also trying to improve their remote instruction plans, since educators did not have much time to perfect online learning when schools shuttered suddenly in the spring.

Many teachers and parents across the state have expressed alarm about returning to school buildings as the virus has spiked in other states. But families across New York say they are desperate for schools and child care centers to open so that they can return to work. About 75 percent of New York City students are low-income and many of their parents are essential workers or employees who cannot work from home.

Some local officials, including Mr. de Blasio, have indicated that they may not make a final decision whether to reopen, even part-time, until late this month or even early next month.

New York City’s system, with 1.1 million children and 1,800 schools, is planning to open on hybrid model, in which children report to school one to three days a week and learn online the rest of the time.

If New York can successfully reopen its schools, it could provide a blueprint for other districts closely watching how the city fares.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/nyregion/cuomo-schools-reopening.html

The National Rifle Association has for decades been one of the most powerful lobby groups in the US, fending off attempts to rein in gun laws through the strength of its millions of members.

But even as it tallied successes in recent years, cracks have emerged as members and powerful donors shared concerns about its spending, management and the widening gap between leadership and the rank-and-file.

New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, gave ground to those concerns in a civil lawsuit filed on Thursday that alleges “brazen illegality” in the NRA and seeks to dissolve the organization.

The 168-page lawsuit outlines the workings of an organization in which, allegedly, dissent was not tolerated, spending was not disclosed or approved through the proper channels, and oversight was negligent.

The NRA announced it was counter-suing the attorney general’s office on Thursday and said the lawsuit was a politicized attack on the organization.

“You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle,” the NRA president, Carolyn Meadows, said in a statement. “It’s a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda.”

These are some of the key takeaways of the lawsuit:

NRA leader allegedly used gun lobby as his ‘personal piggy bank’

The lawsuit accused the NRA’s leader of nearly 30 years, Wayne LaPierre, of extensive use of the organization’s funds for personal travel, including flights in which his family or associates were on board but he was not.

From May 2015 to April 2019, the NRA incurred over $1m in private flight expenses when LaPierre was not a passenger. The complaint said the NRA’s board did not authorize or consent to these expenses.

The New York attorney general, Letitia James, announces her legal bid to dissolve the NRA. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

The complaint details several of these private flights, including one which cost $15,000 to get his niece’s husband from a convention for the hunting group the Safari Club in Las Vegas to Nebraska.

LaPierre testified to the attorney general’s office that his niece was working at the convention, so he flew her husband out to help with childcare, but then her husband had to return to Nebraska for work before the convention ended. “[I]t’s really almost very hard to get commercial flights back,” LaPierre testified.

NRA would still pay LaPierre at least $1m a year after he left the organization, according to the complaint

If LaPierre lost a re-election bid or retired, he would be paid at least $1m a year, per a post-employment contract referenced in the lawsuit. There is no evidence this contract was reviewed or approved by the group’s board or any other committee, nor is there evidence it was disclosed to membership, according to the complaint.

“I didn’t ask for this contract,” LaPierre testified to the attorney general’s office, saying extensions to the contract were prompted by a desire to retain rights over his name and likeness.

LaPierre continued: “It’s what was presented to me and I signed it and it never went into effect because I stayed on as EVP [executive vice-president].”

The NRA’s chief legal officer was allegedly underqualified

Four current and former members of the NRA’s senior leadership are named as defendants in the lawsuit, including John Frazer, the group’s general counsel.

The complaint alleges Frazer was “unprepared to manage the legal and regulatory affairs of the NRA” after working in private practice as a lawyer for only 18 months.

He first started at the NRA in 1993, became a licensed attorney in 2008 and then briefly left the organization to work as a lawyer before returning in 2015.

Frazer also served as the group’s secretary, “but has little apparent knowledge of the requirements of New York law governing not-for-profit corporations,” according to the complaint.

He is accused of allowing the organization to secretly pay millions to several board members through consulting agreements that were not disclosed or approved by the board.

Senior leadership allegedly ignored oversight infrastructure

In allegations raging from conflict-of-interest contracts and expensed Christmas gifts, there is a pattern of senior NRA leadership, including LaPierre and Frazer, violating the organization’s disclosure rules. The two other named defendants are the NRA’s former treasurer and chief financial officer, Wilson “Woody” Phillips and the former chief of staff and executive director of general operations, Joshua Powell.

“For instance, LaPierre and Phillips entered into post-employment agreements with departing officers and employees that provided excessive payments in exchange for little, if any, services and non-disclosure/non-disparagement agreements,” the complaint said.

“Powell secured contracts that benefited his family members without disclosure of his familial relationship. And Frazer permitted the NRA to secretly pay millions of dollars to several board members through consulting arrangements that were neither disclosed to, nor approved by, the NRA board.”

Efforts to challenge LaPierre were allegedly ‘quashed or ignored’

Before the complaint was made public, reports of LaPierre’s tight grip on the organization were well known.

In April 2019, as the organization showed signs of strain, its president, Oliver North, announced, he would not seek re-election amid reports he was in a power struggle with LaPierre.

The complaint appears to reference that battle, without naming North. It said: “LaPierre withdrew his critical support after the president began to independently assess the governance of the NRA upon learning of complaints by whistleblowers, senior staff and donors.”

The complaint also identifies an instance where senior members of the NRA’s financial staff made a whistleblower complaint itemizing “numerous practices that abused NRA assets”.

Complaints about Powell, the former chief of staff, were also allegedly never investigated.

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/07/nra-lawsuit-new-york-attorney-general-wayne-lapierre

“And it sets a dangerous precedent for the concept of free expression and open markets. We will pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and our users are treated fairly — if not by the Administration, then by the US courts.”

TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based internet giant ByteDance, wasn’t the only Chinese company targeted by the Trump administration Thursday. Another executive order was directed at WeChat, the popular messaging app owned by Tencent, claiming its data collection could give Beijing access to Americans’ personal information.

The bans on TikTok and WeChat are set to take effect in 45 days.

Tencent is arguably a more significant target than ByteDance as its WeChat app is used by millions internationally and the company owns or invests in several major U.S. gaming companies including Riot Games, Epic Games and Activision Blizzard, whose share price was down 1.5% in Friday’s premarket.

It’s still not clear whether the order could affect Tencent’s other business dealings.

“We are reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding,” the company told CNBC’s Eunice Yoon in a statement.

TikTok has become a global cultural phenomenon and is especially popular with teens and young adults, who use it to share short-form videos including everything from lip-syncing to comedy.

Despite being Chinese-owned, TikTok has a U.S. CEO and its largest office is based in Los Angeles. ByteDance operates a separate version of the app for China called Douyin.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/07/tiktok-threatens-legal-action-against-trumps-executive-order.html

The Labor Department will report Friday morning on how many jobs the economy created in July, as the United States climbs back from the depths of the pandemic recession. Forecasters expect a slowdown from May, when the nascent recovery added 2.7 million jobs, and June, when it added 4.8 million. That is because the resurgence of the coronavirus has cooled off growth in consumer spending and business activity for much of the summer.

If Friday’s report shows a drastic slowdown in job creation, while the economy remains down more than 10 million jobs from its prepandemic peak in February, pressure will rise on Mr. Trump and congressional leaders to cut a deal to provide additional aid for struggling small businesses, laid-off workers and state and local governments that are facing large shortfalls in tax revenue.

“It’s so clear that we should do something, and we should do something big, and we should do it in a way that is bipartisan as we have done every other bill,” Ms. Pelosi said after the meeting.

Republicans, for their part, blamed Democrats for what they described as an unwillingness to compromise on a number of critical fronts, like agreeing to liability protections for businesses or accepting a lower level of funding for schools that are already starting the academic year. They remained bitterly opposed to Democrats’ demands for hundreds of billions of dollars for food aid, election security and the Postal Service.

“A lot of Americans’ hopes — a lot of American lives — are riding on the Democrats’ endless talk,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, vowing to remain in Washington in anticipation of an agreement. “I hope they are not disappointed.”

It is all but guaranteed that a popular small-business loan program will stop accepting applications at the end of the week, becoming yet another casualty of the faltering negotiations. And it appeared likely that the talks would stretch into next week. Mr. Meadows said he would host a daily conference call next week with Republican senators to keep them updated on the progress — or lack thereof — of negotiations.

“I was hoping that maybe you wouldn’t have that call after Friday because we’d have a deal,” Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, told reporters. “I do think at some point, everybody has to make a decision either we’re going to do this or not, and if we’re not, we’re not.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/business/coronavirus-jobs-report-trump-congress-stimulus.html

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Source Article from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-07/white-house-democrats-fail-to-find-breakthrough-on-stimulus

New York Attorney General Letitia James has a “political agenda” against the National Rifle Association (NRA) former Utah congressman and Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz told “The Story” Thursday.

James announced earlier Thursday that her office has filed a lawsuit against the NRA and its leadership, including Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, with the aim of dissolving the organization. She accused the NRA of “a culture of self-dealing,” taking millions of dollars for personal use and granting contracts that benefited leaders’ family and associates.

NRA PLANS TO SPEND ‘TENS OF MILLIONS’ IN BATTLEGROUND STATES 

“I don’t hear anything new,” Chaffetz said of James’ claims. “These allegations have been out there for a long time, and I haven’t seen anything come of it, but one of the reasons Democrats keep going after the NRA is they’re highly effective … This is a simple, easy argument for the overwhelming majority of Americans. You have a Constitutional right to bear arms.”

The NRA submitted its own civil suit against James, accusing her of defamation and violating its right to free speech.

NRA FIGHTS BACK, FILES ITS OWN SUIT AGAINST NY ATTORNEY GENERAL

The group says James “made the political prosecution of the NRA a central campaign theme” when she was running for state attorney general in 2018, and has not treated the association fairly since.

“The Democrats don’t go after the people that actually go out and break the law …,” Chaffetz remarked. “That’s what’s amazing about this argument, is they want to redirect and defund the police departments who actually go out and enforce these types of [gun] laws.”

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The former House Oversight Committee chairman told Smith that James’ actions will serve to boost gun sales.

“I mean, they’re smashing records,” he said. “Millions of people [are] going out and filing applications and doing background checks because they know that if Joe Biden, heaven forbid, actually gets elected, their guns are going to be under assault, and that is not something people want to see.”

Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones and Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/jason-chaffetz-nra-lawsuit-democrats-political-agenda

President Donald Trump told the White House staff to keep working on an executive order if Congress does not finalize a new stimulus package.

Here’s what you need to know.

Stimulus Package

Before departing for Ohio today, Trump tweeted: “Upon departing the Oval Office for Ohio, I’ve notified my staff to continue working on an Executive Order with respect to Payroll Tax Cut, Eviction Protections, Unemployment Extensions, and Student Loan Repayment Options.”

Trump wants at least these policies — a payroll tax cut, eviction protections, unemployment benefits and student loan repayment options — to be included in the next stimulus package. Trump is also keen on including second stimulus checks too. The Senate is expected to begin summer recess after tomorrow, although Congress may forgo recess to remain in session to finalize a stimulus deal. If not, Trump has said repeatedly that he may use executive orders if Congress doesn’t act. Based on Trump’s tweet, here are some policies that could be included in a Trump executive order:

Payroll Tax Cut

Trump has said repeatedly that he wants to suspend payroll taxes and wants a payroll tax cut in the next stimulus package. While Congress did not include a payroll tax cut in the Heals Act, Trump apparently is willing to pursue a payroll tax cut through executive order. By suspending or cutting payroll taxes for employers, an employer could save money to spend on other priorities and potentially forgo layoffs or furloughs. This could help spur an economic recovery and provide liquidity to struggling companies. Payroll tax holidays, by definition, exclude those who are unemployed or retired. They also result in less revenue for the federal government, particularly for Social Security and Medicare. Legal experts have raised questions, under Separation of Powers, whether a president and not Congress has the power to cut taxes. Under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, only Congress has the power to “lay and collect taxes.”


Student Loans

Previously, Trump has supported simplifying federal student loan repayment plans to avoid confusion among borrowers and make them easier to manage. Like most congressional Republicans and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Trump has not supported immediate, outright student loan forgiveness. Many student loan borrowers have asked what the new stimulus package means for student loans. That said, the Heals Act includes a new student loan repayment proposal, but does not include outright student loan forgiveness. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, proposed a new student loan repayment plan in the Heals Act that, among other things, provides student loan relief to borrowers without income. Under Alexander’s plan, if you have no income, you would make no federal student loan payments until you earn income. If you have income, your monthly federal student loan payments would be based on 10% of discretionary income. Like current income-driven repayment plans, a borrower could receive federal student loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years of student loan payments.

Will the student loan relief in the Cares Act be extended? Trump has said that student loans may be suspended for “additional periods of time.” The Cares Act provided multiple student loan benefits, including pausing federal student loan payments and setting interest rates to 0% on federal student loans through September 30. The Heals Act does not include any extension of the Cares Act student loan relief, although Alexander’s plan effectively pauses student loan payments for borrowers with no income. It’s unclear whether Trump’s potential actions would mirror Alexander’s plan or take an alternative path. Importantly, prior to the Cares Act, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump used a 60-day executive order to pause student loan payments, set interest rates to 0% for federal student loans and halt federal student loan debt collection.


Unemployment Benefits

Trump says that he wants to extend unemployment benefits. The $600 a week unemployment insurance benefit ended in July, and Congress did not agree to extend these supplemental benefits before the expiration. In 49 states, recipients received their final unemployment check on July 25, and in New York, recipients last received these weekly unemployment benefits on July 26. In the Heals Act, Senate Republicans proposed to would reduce unemployment benefits to approximately “70% wage replacement.” The wage replacement would equate to about $200 a week under this proposal. Many Republicans have believed that the $600 a week unemployment benefit creates a disincentive for recipients to return to work. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and other Senate Republicans proposed an alternative plan to extend unemployment benefits. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) now said he would be willing to support $600 a week unemployment benefits if the White House agrees.


Eviction Protections

Trump says that he wants to protect Americans from losing their home through eviction as a result of Covid-19. The Cares Act placed a 120-day moratorium on evictions. However, that eviction moratorium expired on July 25, 2020. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, states such as New York, California, Texas and Florida could experience the most evictions based on rent costs and unemployment rate. More than 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits as a result of Covid-19, and many renters have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19, including losing their job in industries such as travel and hospitality. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Protecting Renters From Evictions and Fees Act, which would halt evictions through March 2021. While not included in the Heals Act, the Senate could extend the provisions in the Cares Act if Congress decides to offer additional relief to renters. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) also introduced the Emergency Housing Protections and Relief Act of 2020 in the House of Representatives to provide $100 billion in emergency relief to renters, extend the Cares Act eviction moratorium until March 2021, and provide $75 billion in relief for homeowners. It’s unclear whether Trump’s potential executive order would incorporate any parts of these proposals or include an alternative path.


Next Steps

When will Congress agree on the next stimulus package? It depends who you ask. Some say a deal could come next week, while others say Democrats and Republicans are too far apart. Based on this key stimulus timeline, Congress was expected to reach a deal by August 7. That now appears unlikely, which could push a stimulus deal to next week. It appears that Congress agrees on $1,200 stimulus checks. However, Trump has also noted that he wants second stimulus checks more than $1,200. If Congress can’t agree, it’s possible that Trump issues executive orders on these policy proposal, and potentially more.


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Source Article from https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/08/06/stimulus-package-stimulus-checks-student-loans-unemployment-payroll-tax/