ALL TRUMP!!! ALL THE TIME!!!

Trump says he won’t comply with key transparency measures in the coronavirus stimulus bill

The administration says it won’t provide documentation for audits into $500 billion in corporate bailout funds.

President Donald Trump on Friday wrote in a signing statement accompanying the $2 trillion stimulus bill that he believes the inspector general overseeing a $500 billion relief fund for businesses will not have as much regulatory power as Democrats had sought.

The bill includes a $500 billion fund that companies, such as the struggling airlines, can tap to support their business. The fund is overseen by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. In original drafts of the Republican Senate bill, Mnuchin had wide discretion in overseeing that money. After criticisms from Democrats, Republicans agreed to add on a congressional oversight committee and Inspector General as added control measures.

The language gives the Inspector General power to report back to Congress information including the nature of the loan and its recipients. It has the power to make informational requests from other agencies “to extent practicable and not in contravention of any existing law.” It is required to let Congress know if those requests are blocked.

Trump, though, said Friday he believes the Inspector General needs his permission in order to make such reports to Congress.

“I do not understand, and my Administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the [the Inspector General] to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision,” he wrote in a signing statement. A signing statement indicate how the president intends to interpret a law.

Oversight of that $500 billion fund was one of the last major sticking points in Senate negotiations, CNBC previously reported. Senate Democrats cheered the ultimately agreed-upon language as a victory. They were wary of repeating the mistakes of the bank bailout after the financial crisis, in which Democrats were criticized for allowing bank executives to reward themselves with bonuses after receiving federal money.

“The president’s statement is indicative of the difference between Democrats and Republicans when it came to this bill,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Friday about the language.

“It’s not a surprise to anyone,” she said of Trump’s signing language. “But Congress will exercise its oversight — and we will have our panel appointed by the House to, in real-time, make sure we know where those funds are being expended.”

A Senate Democratic aide said, “We fully anticipated Trump shenanigans, so that’s why there are multiple layers of strict oversight in this bill, including a council of existing inspectors general and GAO review, in addition to the Special IG, reporting requirements and a Congressional Oversight Commission.”

Already been completely debunked. No need to revisit that bogus headline.

Q: Can the State stockpile as many ventilators as would be needed in a severe pandemic?

A: Even if New York State purchases additional ventilators, the demand would quickly outpace supply in a severe pandemic. No matter how many ventilators are available, in a severe pandemic there will be shortages because so many people will be sick at the same time. In addition, even with enough ventilators, a sufficient number of trained staff may not be available to operate them, particularly because health care workers will be among the ill.

uh huh. Still waiting to hear how many people have died as a result of that decision.

uh huh. Like I said, no reason to bring up that debunked storyline ever again, unless you and kireek just want to troll.

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I was focused on the Q&A, I don't speak for Kireek. They made a stupid decision and backed it up with a stupid response. I said nothing about the death toll, so I'm not sure why you brought it up to me specifically.

You would miss me if I wasn't here, you wouldn't have anyone to argue with.

If they didn't have the money, and no one has died as a result of their decision, it wasn't stupid. And since they don't currently have a ventilator shortage, its safe to say no one has died. Not very hard.

Occasionally I try to soften myself up and cut back on the team politics tribalism for the sake of having more productive arguments in here, but most people don't even want to try because it would take them out of their comfort zone. "We're good, they're bad" is just too easy, so why bother, right? Vic admits he's lazy, so maybe that's the driver for the pure partisanship.

He is the most boneheaded partisan human being I've ever seen in my life, and I've posted on reddits politics sub.

Nice try, but you are just enabling his trolling while not making any points. There is no reason for one state to purchase mass quantities of medical supplies if it doesn't need them. There is no such thing as pandemic that just hits one state and ignored the others. This is a federal level crisis, the virus has hit all 50 states, and the federal gov't needs to do more.