Politics - News Analysis

Steve Mnuchin Threatens to Make People Pay Back COVID Relief Money If Trump Is Not Reelected

One sort of figured it would come around to something like this. At some point, Trump would essentially attempt to take the entire American public hostage, “Vote for me, or else!” It seems we have come to that point, with the administration now taking the position that any money Americans save due to Trump’s “orders” yesterday must be paid back if Trump isn’t reelected.

Before we get to Mnuchin’s new statement below, it would be irresponsible to not note that the White House has since clarified that Trump only signed one order (the one on evictions) the rest were “memorandum.” So even though many are still walking about and talking about various “executive orders” having to do with income tax, even the White House seems to know it cannot enact tax policy by order.

That doesn’t mean that the White House doesn’t want lower information voters to think that they’re not enacting tax policy by order. As said, they seem to want voters believing that they’ll have to “pay” to elect a new president.

Chris Wallace had Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Fox News Sunday this morning and asked him about the “orders.”

From Rawstory:

“It’s a payroll tax suspension,” Wallace explained. “Isn’t there a danger that a lot of businesses won’t pass these saving through to workers because they’re going to hold on to the money because at some point, according to this executive action by the end of the year, those payroll taxes are going to be have to be paid anyway?”

“Well, the president wanted to do a payroll tax cut,” Mnuchin replied. “We could do the payroll tax deferral. He’s going to go to the American people and tell them that when he’s reelected, he will push through legislation to forgive that so, in essence, it will turn into a payroll tax cut.”

“When” he is reelected.

The implication being that if he isn’t reelected, then the cuts won’t be forgiven and people will have to pay the cuts back. Thankfully, it seems as though even the administration understands this has been botched from the beginning, as Wallace went on to ask about bankrupting Medicare and Social Security, and Mnuchin punted, saying it will be revisited when the economy gets back to where it was.

But have no doubt, the administration wants people believing that they’ll “make money” by voting for Trump.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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