WASHINGTON, DC – At least two members of the US House voted no on Wednesday when a $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill received final approval from Congress.
The House gave final approval to the package by a vote close to 220-211 of the party, four days after the Senate passed the bill. Republicans in both chambers unanimously opposed the legislation, characterizing it as bloated, crammed with liberal policies and indifferent to signs that the crisis is easing. Still, President Joe Biden and the Democrats have claimed a major triumph in legislation that organizes the government’s spending power against the twin pandemic and economic crises.
Representative Dan Bishop, NC-09, was one of the Republicans to vote no. He criticized the “Pelosi payment” because “it provides very little in funds for real relief from COVID, but it pours money into the coffers of liberal states and special interests,” said the congressman.
“Only 9% of this so-called ‘aid’ plan would go to public health programs that fight COVID,” said Bishop. “And yet, Democrats found $ 350 billion to bail out states, $ 650 million to bail out San Francisco’s municipal debt and send rebate checks to illegal immigrants and individuals in prison, including the Boston Bomber.”
The spending package also allows only 5% of the $ 130 billion allocated to schools to be spent this year and has no requirements for schools to reopen, he said.
“Democrats have also introduced a provision that prohibits states from cutting taxes, targeting states with fiscal responsibility like North Carolina, to the benefit of liberal blue states,” said Bishop. “What all this has to do with the relief from COVID is anyone’s guess. Americans deserve a package that meets their needs, not a wasteful liberal wish list. “
Congressman David Rouzer, NC-07, also voted against the spending package.
“President Biden had the chance, early in his government, to seek bipartisan relief legislation COVID-19,” said Rouzer. “Instead, Democrats blocked Republicans from entering.”
More than $ 1 trillion of the COVID-19 bipartisan spending appropriated by Congress in 2020 has not yet been spent, he said. Excluding the $ 1,400 in direct payments, about 50% of the package will not be spent until 2022 and beyond.
“This legislation is nothing more than a wish list of gifts for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in the guise of relief from COVID-19,” said Rouzer.
According to information from the Bishop’s office, the expenditure package also contains:
– A $ 86 billion bailout for pensions from struggling unions;
– Another US $ 1.5 billion for Amtrak;
– A reward for teacher unions, allowing only 5% of the $ 130 billion for K-12 schools to be used this year and not including requirements for reopening schools, despite clear science showing that schools can reopen now ;
– Omitting the Hyde Amendment protections, paving the way for taxpayer-funded abortions;
– Expand Obamacare further by removing the limit for receiving subsidies; and
– Granting 15 weeks of paid leave to federal bureaucrats, which at a fee of $ 1,400 per week is equivalent to a $ 21,000 bonus for federal employees.
“Help is here,” tweeted Biden moments after the call list, which ended with applause from Democratic lawmakers. Biden said he would sign the measure on Friday.
Most notable for many Americans are the provisions that provide up to $ 1,400 in direct payments this year for most adults and extend the weekly $ 300 emergency unemployment benefits until early September. But the legislation goes far beyond that.
The move meets Democrats’ campaign pledges and Biden’s top initial priority of facilitating a double coup that hit the country a year ago. Since then, many Americans have been relegated to hermitic lifestyles in their homes to avoid a disease that has killed more than 525,000 people – about the population of Wichita, Kansas – and plunged the economy into its depths since the Great Depression.
“Today we have to make a decision with tremendous consequences,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., “A decision that will make a difference for millions of Americans, saving lives and livelihoods.”
For Biden and Democrats, the bill is essentially a canvas on which they painted their fundamental beliefs – that government programs can be a benefit, not a curse, for millions of people and that spending large sums on such efforts can be the cure. , not a curse. The measure tracks the Democrats’ priorities so closely that many classify it with the greatest achievements of their careers and, despite their slim majorities in Congress, there was never a real scare about their fate.
They were also strengthened by three dynamics: their unrestricted control of the White House and Congress, polls showing strong support for Biden’s approach and a time when the majority of voters are little concerned that the national debt is rising into the stratosphere. of $ 22 trillion. Neither party seems very concerned about the increase in red ink, except when the other is using it to finance its priorities, whether they be Democratic spending or Republican Party tax cuts.
Republicans noted that they overwhelmingly supported five earlier relief bills that Congress passed since the pandemic struck a year ago, when the government divided under then President Donald Trump forced the parties to negotiate. They said it reflected only Democratic goals, setting aside money for family planning programs and federal officials who take leave to deal with COVID-19 and not requiring closed schools that accept aid to open their doors.
“If you are a member of the swamp, you do very well with this project. But for the American people, that means serious problems immediately on the horizon, ”said minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Referring to the additional federal loan that the measure will force.