Ex-Obama campaign manager David Plouffe calls Trump a ‘carnival barker’ for adding his name to stimulus checks – The Sun

OBAMA's former campaign manager has slammed the Trump administration for reportedly delaying the release of millions of coronavirus stimulus checks so the president's name could appear on them.

David Plouffe called Trump a "carnival barker" after a move by the Treasury Department to print Trump's name on the Internal Revenue Service checks distributed to Americans that have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The process, which is the first time a president's name has appeared on an IRS check, could slow down the delivery process by a few days, according to a report in the Washington Post.

"It’s a scandal," Plouffe told MSNBC. "It’s an outrage that there would be a delay of even an hour, much less days so he can put his name on the check.

"It’s dumb, secondly, because people would rather have jobs and their businesses open than getting this check in the first place.

"It’s not like somebody in Wisconsin is going to say, ‘You know what, I was going to vote for Joe Biden, but now I’m going to vote for Donald Trump because his name’s on the check," Plouffe added.

The president is not the legal signing authority for the checks, as the Washington Post notes.

"I think it’s less about his name on the check and thinking that’s going to accrue political benefit, but, you know, it’s a sideshow and he’d rather us talking about that than the fact there’s tens of thousands of people that are going to die in this country, an economy that’s gonna be lucky to be in a recession instead of a depression because he acted too slowly," Plouffe continued.

"So I think again, he’s a carnival barker extraordinaire and my suspicion is there’s some of that at play here."

On Wednesday, Democrats announced a new bill which would give Americans $2,000 a month if passed.

The Emergency Money for the People Act would give the stimulus to Americans over the age of 16 who make less than $130,000 for a minimum of six months.

The payments would continue until employment rates return to pre-coronavirus levels.

In the plan, proposed by Reps Tim Ryan of Ohio and Ro Khanna of California, the money would be sent both via checks and direct deposits, as well as through money platforms such as Venmo, Zelle and PayPal.

“A one-time, twelve hundred dollar check isn’t going to cut it,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, of the first cash payment that was passed in the CARES Act.

“Americans need sustained cash infusions for the duration of this crisis in order to come out on the other side alive, healthy, and ready to get back to work."

Khanna and Ryan are "urging" the government to include their bill in the fourth COVID relief package "to truly support the American working class".

In the past three weeks, unemployment claims have skyrocketed to 16.8 million.

More than one in 10 workers have lost their jobs in the coronavirus outbreak.

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