THREAD: President Trump’s new executive actions should deeply concern all Americans. They fall dramatically short of responding effectively to the enormous need across the country due to COVID-19 and the deep recession: https://www.cbpp.org/press/statements/greenstein-trump-covid-19-executive-actions-woefully-inadequate-legally-dangerous #COVID19

And, by bypassing Congress on major budget and tax decisions and trying to override federal laws on the use of federal funds, they weaken our democracy by shredding longstanding norms of governance and potentially violating the Constitution.

Of note is the requirement that states pay 25% of the $400-a-week unemployment benefit supplement that the directive claims to provide -- even as today’s executive actions provide no fiscal relief to states despite the massive pandemic-driven budget shortfalls they face.

And even if every state could find new money to cover 25% of these unemployment benefit costs, the benefits apparently would run out after about six weeks because the federal funding the President is shifting to these benefits will then be exhausted.

In addition, millions of Americans are behind on rent, and while the President claimed at his press conference that he is extending the federal evictions moratorium and providing rental assistance, the executive order on housing does neither.

More on how these executive actions fall far short of the enormous need across the country in my full statement: https://www.cbpp.org/press/statements/greenstein-trump-covid-19-executive-actions-woefully-inadequate-legally-dangerous #COVIDRelief