OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Don Bacon, along with the rest of Congress, was thrown off last week when President Trump threatened a veto on a bill his treasury secretary told them he’d sign.
“I expected his support, I was surprised Tuesday night when the president came out against it, we were given every indication the president supported it,” Bacon said.
One reporter said that Bacon told his fellow Republican members of Congress that Trump "sold out" the GOP.
“I did because the president and his team negotiated the bill that we voted on, encouraged us to vote for it and so then, to find out two hours later that he opposed it, it concerned us,” said Bacon.
But Bacon says he’s not dwelling on the negative as he’s happy the president turned another 180 degrees and signed the bill.
But now Congress is reacting to Trump, and will soon be voting on a measure that gives $2,000 dollar checks to Americans, not the $600 in the stimulus package.
Bacon wasn't keen on pushing that through.
“If we’re going to spend money we need to target it to those who need it, so i think this is not a smart way forward,” Bacon said.
He says he wants the money to help out small businesses, and those unemployed due to COVID-19.
“That’s what I think the COVID supplemental should be for, to be targeted money to those that are struggling. The problem is with direct payments, it goes to everyone even those who aren’t hurt,” said Bacon.
In a statement before the vote, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry said it was important that Trump signed the bill and that “additional relief will be an ongoing consideration of Congress both now and into the future.”
Monday night, the House passed the $2,000 checks and it will now move to the Senate.
Bacon flew back to Washington, D.C. Monday, not only to vote on the extra money, but also to override a veto Trump actually made.
It’s the bill that funds the military budget. Trump didn’t sign largely because it doesn’t remove protections from social media companies.
“There’s no way the Democrats will pass this in the defense bill, so we got to ask ourselves, do we want a defense bill or not? I say yes we need one, and this is a good bill and we should work on the social media concern separately,” said Bacon.
