Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) believes his Democrat counterparts are deliberately stalling a deal on providing the American people with further economic relief because they think it will benefit them politically in November.
Speaking to Just the News in a Wednesday interview, the Texas lawmaker surmised that Democrat leaders, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), are not approaching another economic relief measure with a sense of urgency because they believe it will hurt President Donald Trump in the upcoming election.
“They are all in in keeping the economy shut down, keeping people out of work, keeping school shut down because they believe that benefits their political and partisan interest,” Cruz told Just the News, basing his conclusion on their statements, both private and public.
“Well, based on their public statements and their private statements, I believe that both Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have decided they do not want to reach a deal, that they don’t want to have any significant legislation between now and Election Day,” Cruz said.
“And the reason I believe they’ve made that decision is they’ve made some really cynical political calculation to maximize the economic pain that Americans are feeling because, in their judgment, the more people who are at home, who are broke and pissed off and unemployed, the more likely they believe it is that Joe Biden wins in November,” he continued, calling it a “cynical” and “partisan” decision.
“But by all, all indicia that that appears to be the judgments they’ve made,” he said.
Meanwhile, Schumer has publicly placed the blame on Republicans for failure to reach a deal, chiding them in a letter and accusing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) of “planning another round of partisan games” as the Senate prepares to return from summer recess.
He wrote in part:
Speaker Pelosi and I have been attempting to negotiate with the White House on the next round of legislation to properly respond to the unprecedented health and economic crises caused by the COIVD-19 pandemic. It has been arduous. Democrats have negotiated in good faith and we have offered to meet our Republican counterparts in the middle, but the White House has refused to make any significant compromise. According to reports, the Republicans are now moving even further in the wrong direction. In the upcoming session, Leader McConnell and the White House may cut their original, inadequate, $1 trillion “skinny” bill in half.
According to Politico, the Senate GOP proposal “is expected to include $300 in boosted weekly federal unemployment benefits through the end of December, another round of funding for the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses, $105 billion for education, and liability protections for companies, schools and health care providers amid the pandemic” and “provide billions to the U.S. Postal Service by converting an existing loan into a grant.”
The White House, Schumer warned in the letter, has “embraced a hardline view that the federal government should be doing less, not more, during this time of national crisis,” blasting the GOP’s “self-described lack of urgency” and accusing Republicans of simply trying to “give the appearance of action.”
Trump provided further economic relief to Americans via a series of executive actions in August, including a payroll tax holiday, a federal unemployment enhancement, and student loan relief.
Both Pelosi and Schumer dismissed his actions.
“Today’s meager announcements show President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families,” Pelosi said at the time. “These policies provide little real help for families.”
Schumer described the action as a “big show” that “doesn’t do anything.”
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