Republicans Delay Americans’ Direct Relief So Trump Can Put His Name On the Checks

Not a Single Republican Senator Has Spoken Out Against Trump Holding Up Urgently Needed Relief Checks So They Can Include His Signature

A new report last night in the Washington Post found that the Trump administration has ordered “President Donald J. Trump” to be printed on direct relief checks — an unprecedented move that “could slow their delivery” according to senior IRS officials.

In the middle of a once-in-a-century public health crisis when more than 16 million Americans – roughly 10% of the nation’s workforce – have already lost their jobs in less than a month, President Trump is more focused on his own personal political gain than making sure millions of struggling families can put food on the table or pay their bills on time this week.

Not a single Republican Senator has spoken out against Trump delaying the relief checks so they can include this pro-Trump branding.

“Senate Republicans have refused to hold Donald Trump accountable and are just as responsible for any delay in direct relief payments as the president himself,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “These self-serving politicians have said nothing about Trump’s failure to prepare for this crisis or his inadequate response, and now they’re standing by while he holds up desperately needed economic relief all so he can put his name on checks from the IRS. Senators like Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Steve Daines, Joni Ernst, Cory Gardner, Martha McSally, Thom Tillis, John Cornyn and Lindsey Graham are now running on a policy to make Americans wait for the relief they need.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Washington Post: In unprecedented move, Treasury orders Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks

By Lisa Rein 

April 14, 2020

• The Treasury Department has ordered President Trump’s name be printed on stimulus checks the Internal Revenue Service is rushing to send to tens of millions of Americans, a process that could slow their delivery by a few days, senior IRS officials said.

• The unprecedented decision, finalized late Monday, means that when recipients open the $1,200 paper checks the IRS is scheduled to begin sending to 70 million Americans in coming days, “President Donald J. Trump” will appear on the left side of the payment.

• It will be the first time a president’s name appears on an IRS disbursement, whether a routine refund or one of the handful of checks the government has issued to taxpayers in recent decades either to stimulate a down economy or share the dividends of a strong one.

• Trump had privately suggested to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who oversees the IRS, to allow the president to formally sign the checks, according to three administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

• The decision to have the paper checks bear Trump’s name, in the works for weeks, according to a Treasury official, was announced early Tuesday to the IRS’s information technology team. The team, working from home, is now racing to implement a programming change that two senior IRS officials said will probably lead to a delay in issuing the first batch of paper checks. They are scheduled to be sent Thursday to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service for printing and issuing.

• Computer code must be changed to include the president’s name, and the system must be tested, these officials said. “Any last minute request like this will create a downstream snarl that will result in a delay,” said Chad Hooper, a quality-control manager who serves as national president of the IRS’s Professional Managers Association.

• “Taxes are supposed to be nonpolitical, and it’s that simple,” said Nina Olson, who stepped down last fall after an 18-year tenure as the National Taxpayer Advocate, leading an arm of the IRS that helps individual taxpayers resolve tax problems, manages clinics for low-income taxpayers and advises the agency on service issues. “It’s absolutely unprecedented,” Olson said.

• Hooper, the president of the Professional Managers Association, said he was appalled by what he called “an abuse of government resources.”

• “In this time of need for additional resources,” Hooper said, “anything that takes our focus from getting those checks out the door and hampers the equitable, fair administration of the tax code is not something we can support.”

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