GOP’s Tom McClintock ‘skeptical’ of any Trump order on unemployment without Congress’ OK
Rep. Tom McClintock is no fan of President Donald Trump’s executive order to provide unemployment recipients with another $300 to $400 weekly.
“I am skeptical of any executive order that spends money without congressional authorization,” the California Republican said, “and any policy that pays people more not to work than they were making when they were working.”
He’s wary of the executive action taken Aug. 8 to boost unemployment checks by up to $400 for jobless Americans after Congress failed to reach an agreement on extending a temporary $600 weekly benefit that expired in late July.
This time, Trump said checks would increase by $400 a week as long as states chipped in an extra $100 a week for their unemployed residents.
McClintock’s argument is a constitutional one. Congress, not the president, has power over taxes and spending. Trump’s executive action changes that balance, although Democrats have not yet pursued legal action to challenge it.
McClintock insists it’s the responsibility of Gov. Gavin Newsom, not Washington, to help fix the state’s ailing economy.
“With respect to Newsom, I believe that the states that ordered the lockdowns should bear the principal responsibility for the damage they caused to their own citizens,” the Republican congressman told The Bee.
He’s long been critical of the governor’s March decision to shut down much of the state.
“Before he took the radical and unprecedented action of locking down an entire population, he better have had a plan to restore people’s lives and livelihoods. Until he does, he is deeply answerable for the damage he’s done,” the congressman said.
A bigger issue for Newsom, and many other governors, was where to find the funds to pay the state share of Trump’s order. Newsom said California would need about $700 million a week, money he said that the state’s ravaged budget cannot afford.
Trump has since modified his direction, and indicated states could distribute $300 a week from the federal government to unemployed workers.
The governor said Aug. 12 he was working on how to implement a plan to provide the $300 “as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
McClintock was not sympathetic to Newsom’s concerns about the state’s ability to pay.
“I don’t know how he brings back the many businesses that have permanently closed because of his policies — or how he feeds, clothes and houses the families who depended on them.”
McClintock, of Elk Grove, is a staunch conservative who’s consistently questioned government efforts to get overly involved in managing the nation’s economy.
He was one of 40 members of Congress, all Republicans, to vote against major economic relief legislation March 14.
He did vote for the $2 trillion CARES economic relief bill later that month, saying that in such an extraordinary economic crisis, businesses and individuals badly needed the help it provided. But he also had this reminder about the perils of government overreach: “Covid-19 didn’t kill our economy. Government policies, however well intentioned, did.”
McClintock reiterated his views last week in remarks to the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce.
“There is no substitute for reopening the economy and our schools. Those at risk should self-quarantine, but the rest of society should never have been ordered into lockdown,” he said.
He said he’s heard from many employers who find it hard to get workers, since they can make more from jobless benefits.
If Congress does vote on another economic relief plan — which looks highly uncertain right now — he said it must be conditioned on reopening and target funds to people and businesses who have been directly impacted, and protect businesses from frivolous lawsuits.
And, McClintock said, “local government assistance should go directly to local governments rather than channeled through governors who have held rural communities hostage with these funds.”
McClintock, who represents a congressional district that stretches from the Sacramento suburbs to the Nevada border and south past Mariposa and Eastern Madera counties, is seeking an eighth term. He’s vying with Democratic businesswoman Brynne Kennedy.
Kennedy blasted McClintock’s views.
“Instead of attacking a virus that’s killed 165,000 Americans, fringe politician Tom McClintock has attacked our community--voting against bi-partisan measures to provide COVID-19 relief and much needed investments to strengthen our local economy,” she said in a statement.
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 2:28 PM.
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