Tester: We Spent Too Much on COVID Relief, Spending Needs ‘To Be More Targeted’ than It Was Last Two Years

On Monday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) argued that government spending has “to be more targeted than it has been the last couple of years” and that while too much was spent on coronavirus relief, particularly with direct payments, he voted for the bills because “you never want to let perfection be the enemy of the good.”

Tester said, “Does the spending need to be more targeted than it has been the last couple of years? Yeah, absolutely. And we need to be aware not to do it too much.”

Co-host Becky Quick then asked, “Do you think the money that’s been spent to this point was excessive?”

Tester answered, “Look, I think it could have been pared back, but you never want to let perfection be the enemy of the good. We cut $2,000 checks, which tended to be a bipartisan effort, as the former president wanted that done and it was done. I would not have advocated that to happen because I don’t necessarily think that [that] needed to happen at that moment in time. But look, I ended up voting for the bill and the bill passed, but, like I said before, very few bills — with the exception of the ones that I carry — are perfect, and — but you try to massage them to make them as good as possible.”

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