After months of stalled negotiations, Congress finally passed a new, $900 billion epidemic relief plan on Monday night (Dec. 21). The plan received overwhelming support in the Senate. But six Republicans remain firmly opposed to it.
According to Foxnews, the six include Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), and John Kerry (R-Wis.). Johnson (R), Senator Mike Lee (R) of Utah, Senator Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky, and Senator Rick Scott (R) of Florida.
It was revealed that the bill is tied to a $1.4 trillion spending bill, including one designed to avoid a government shutdown. Criticism of the bailout bill from the six senators focused on its size, including the amount and the number of pages in the bill.
Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul
Republican Sen. Rand Paul said on the Senate floor: “For so-called conservatives who are quick to agree with the socialist positions of the Democrats, if you vote for this spending monster, you’re no better than they are.”
Targeting fellow Republicans, he said, “When you vote for free money handouts, you lose your soul and give up any appearance of moral or financial justice forever.”
Instead, Paul suggested that lawmakers should open up the economy, reduce the waste evident in the budget and stop piling up debt for future generations.
Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott
Likewise, Scott railed against what he sees as this unnecessary and expensive bailout, warning of the consequences for taxpayers.
He tweeted, “Once again, in typical Washington fashion, attaching an important program to a massive omnibus spending bill, a bill that is taking the future of our children and grandchildren to obtain collateralized debt. Therefore, I cannot support this bill.”
Scott tweeted a longer statement in which he lamented, “Washington doesn’t seem to understand that this new spending today will increase the federal debt and lead to higher taxes on families in the future.” He mentioned that his position was consistent with his consistent opposition to the “Big Waste” bill.
He said, “Congress is continuing to hurt America’s future generations, and the easy thing to do, of course, is to go with the flow, but I’m not going to get involved.”
Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee
Blackburn recognizes that the legislation does accomplish some positive goals, such as developing and distributing vaccines, aiding schools and helping small businesses, but she said it is not worth the high price tag.
I cannot support this spending totaling nearly $2.4 trillion, which will make recovery even more difficult,” she said in a statement. I have serious concerns about some of the provisions in this 5,593-page bill. Examples include expanding visas, providing Pell grants for prisoners, and illegal immigrant families receiving economic impact subsidies. For these reasons, I voted against passing this legislation.”
Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson
Johnson said he was “pleased that the U.S. government shutdown was averted and that many people who really need relief will finally be able to get it,” but explained that he opposed the legislation because of the “dysfunctional” nature of the process.
In a statement, Johnson said, “The dysfunction in Washington, D.C., has been on full display, with Congress passing a massive omnibus spending bill three months after the deadline, which continues into this fiscal year.” “The behemoth was 5,593 pages long and passed nine hours after the Senate first saw it.”
Johnson warned that with no time to review the lengthy bill, it could take weeks or months for lawmakers to understand all that it contains.
“I simply cannot support this dysfunction, so I voted against it,” he said.
Johnson said he had supported the CARES Act earlier this year because of the need for “rapid and massive action to prevent economic collapse. This time, however, he preferred a more targeted approach, a very thin bill drafted in September that could still provide more than $600 billion in relief.
He continued, “We don’t have an unlimited checking account, and we have to be more careful with federal money (that we borrow from future generations) and limit what we have for future generations, the risks they will take in the future.”
Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas
Cruz and Lee also criticized the legislative process, where lawmakers had only a few hours to read the thousands of pages of the bill. After hearing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticize the lack of time to review the large bill before it had to be voted on, Cruz echoed the left-wing Democrat’s sentiments.
Cruz tweeted, “It’s absurd to negotiate a roughly $2.5 trillion spending bill in secret only to require a vote hours later on a bill that no one has time to read.”
Cruz also slammed Democrats in a statement released Tuesday morning (Dec. 22), claiming the bill “advances the interests of the radical left, special interests and swamp lobbyists, and that the funds will be used to expand H-2B visa authority for foreign workers while the number of unemployed Americans remains near record levels.” He added that it sets “the stage for the Democrats to implement the so-called ‘Green New Deal,’ which asserts the ‘need’ to meet America’s electricity needs through clean, renewable or zero-emissions energy. “
Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah
Mike Lee demonstrated the difficult logistics of reading thousands of pages in such a short period of time, showing in a video he posted on Twitter how long it took just to get it in print.
“Because of the length, it’s unlikely that anyone will have a chance to read this bill between now and our vote,” Lee said in the video. “I’m absolutely certain that this was put together by a handful of members of Congress and their staffs, and 98 percent of members of Congress from both parties in both houses were excluded.”
After making the statement via video with a printer running in the background, Lee noted that it took about three minutes to print the first 100 pages of the bill.
He said, “This process of requiring members of Congress to blindly follow legislation negotiated in complete secrecy by four colleagues must end.”
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