House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) on Monday slammed the Democrats’ proposed $1.9 trillion COVID relief package.
Scalise told Fox News Channel’s “The Faulkner Focus” that the bill is full of “liberal pork.” He added that the non-health-related items included in the package make “no sense,” and it would be “devastating for America” if it passes.
“I hope that everybody in America is taking a look at some of … the liberal pork in this bill and what they are trying to do all in the name of COVID relief. ‘And boy, we need to rush this through.’ Didn’t we hear this before? You have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it. You’re going to be finding out a lot of things disturbing,” Scalise stated. “Less than 10% of the money in this $1.9 trillion is for public health.”
He continued, “And if you look at the schools’ money, we ought to be opening up every school in America right now. The money is there to do it. There is over $60 billion still out there from the previous bipartisan bills to safely reopen schools. They are going to give another $100 plus billion, and you saw the president’s spokesperson yesterday said it’s not even going to require them to open up schools. They just get the money. They don’t have to educate our kids in the classroom, which is devastating millions of kids across America. That’s what’s in the bill. It’s $15 minimum wage, bailout of failed states like New York. Think about this — Governor Cuomo still won’t release the data. We had an amendment to require Cuomo in this bill to release the data on nursing home deaths. He still won’t give that. Even democrats are calling for his removal. California has a $10 billion surplus right now. Gavin Newsom was bragging about that last week. $10 billion surplus in California. This bill is going to borrow money from our kids to give Gavin Newsom billions more. This makes no sense. It is destructive to our economy.”
Scalise said voting to pass the Democrats’ package is a vote to continue the delay of school reopenings and giving away money “that’s going to be borrowed from our kids to slow economic growth.”
“This bill is really devastating for America. We need to defeat it and focus on helping families and small businesses get back open and schools get back open,” he added.
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