The Treasury Department has ordered President Donald 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.
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.
The Hour
Actually, the stable genius wanted his huge John Hancock to appear on every stimulus check, and he ordered the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who oversees the IRS, to allow him to formally sign the checks. But the president’s signature is not allowed on any check issued by the U.S. Treasury, so Mnuchin appeased his boss by printing his name on the checks instead.
Never mind that by having his signature printed on the stimulus checks he is injecting partisan politics into a bipartisan law that’s intended to help Americans of all political persuasions during the coronavirus pandemic.
And never mind that having the egomaniac’s name printed on the checks, at the last moment, will lead to a delay in issuing the first batch of checks.
Trump could care less that he is delaying issuing of checks to poor souls who desperately need the money to buy food and pay their rent. Keep in mind that most Americans have already had the stimulus payment deposited to their checking or savings accounts; it’s generally poor people who don’t have bank accounts who have to wait longer for their stimulus checks to be mailed to them.
This stimulus checks with Trump’s name fiasco illustrates how the commander-in-chief has handled the coronavirus pandemic crisis. Instead of putting the needs of Americans first, he cares only about how to exploit the crisis to burnish his brand and improve his ratings.
On November when you see Trump’s name on the ballot, I hope you will remember how he cared more about his image than he cared about voters health and welfare at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.