#Trump urges Congress to stop evictions, pass stimulus checks

President Trump on Wednesday called on Congress to quickly extend a lapsed moratorium on evictions and approve more coronavirus stimulus checks.

“You gotta work on the evictions, so people don’t get evicted. You work on the payments to the people. The rest of it, we’re so far apart we don’t care. We really don’t care,” Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn.

Senate Republicans released the text of a $1 trillion COVID-19 package on Monday after a week of talks with the White House. But Democrats, who passed a rival $3 trillion package in the House in May, disagree on many points.

Democrats largely object to a GOP-proposed liability shield for businesses. Republicans, meanwhile, oppose Democrats’ bid to bail out states. And some conservatives are uneasy with spending in the Republican package.

The Republican bill would give another round of $1,200 checks to most people, something included in the bill Democrats approved in May.

Previous large coronavirus bills passed following protracted negotiations between Democrats and Republicans, but talks are off to a slow start this week.

“We want to take care of the people. The Democrats aren’t taking care of the people. The payments aren’t enough,” Trump said Wednesday. “They’re not making the payments, they’re not making them high enough. The Democrats are not taking care of the people. [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi takes care of herself but she doesn’t take care of anyone else. You look at what’s going on with [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer. So when Schumer and Pelosi can get together and take care of the people, we’ll do something. In the meantime we want to stop evictions.”

The expired ban on evictions protected renters who miss monthly payments and live in buildings with federally backed loans. It lapsed last week and the Aspen Institute estimates up to 23 million people could face eviction by October. Some states, including New York, have their own moratoriums.