Senate Republicans protested President Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus legislation as a liberal bailout for the blue states, as they plan to make passing the bill as painful as possible for Democrats this week.
Republicans attacked the $ 350 billion allocated in the bill for state and local governments and said the new funding formula disproportionately benefits the blue states of New York and California.
“This bill would reward bad deeds, because states that have not managed themselves are the ones that will benefit from it,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “It is like the manna from heaven for them.”
Blackburn was among the nine Republican senators at a Capitol news conference on Wednesday to say that residents of states with healthy finances should not have to provide funds to help liberal states.
ARCHIVE: Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Listens during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Wednesday, October 14, 2020, on Capitol Hill, Washington . (Stefani Reynolds / Pool via AP)
“We ask the good people of Iowa to support the blue state bailouts,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. “And do you know who gets the most out of these blue state bailouts? … The state of Chuck Schumer in New York and the state of Nancy Pelosi in California.”
Republicans were armed with a new report from the Congressional Research Service released on Wednesday that concluded that the formula that Democrats used to divide the $ 350 billion between states is different from the formula used in the previous bipartisan CARES Act, which distributed $ 150 billion in coronavirus aid funds.
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The report, obtained by Fox News, shows that the state governments that would receive more money under the Biden plan are California with $ 26 billion, Texas with $ 16.8 billion, New York with $ 12.6 billion, Florida with $ 10 billion, Illinois with $ 7.5 billion and Pennsylvania with $ 7.3 billion.
But if Democrats had used a formula similar to the CARES Act, California would have received about $ 5 billion less and New York about $ 2 billion less, the report concluded. Meanwhile, the state of Texas does even better until the new Biden formula with about $ 1 billion more, but Florida takes a hit when it receives about $ 1.5 billion less. Georgia also attracted more than $ 1 billion with the new formula.
Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Criticized the $ 1.9 trillion bill as a “liberal spending wish list”. He said the $ 350 billion in state and local funding was Biden’s “reward for his Democratic supporters in Illinois, California. [and] In New York.”
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., will try to get Biden’s piece of legislation to pass the Senate this week with the smallest Democratic majority. The measure was passed in the House last week without the support of the Republican Party.
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Senate Republicans plan to launch a “maximum pressure, maximum exposure” strategy as Schumer tries to get the project to the finish line, according to Stephen Bradford, a spokesman for the Senate Republican Conference.
Republicans plan to offer unlimited amendments to force Democrats to vote strongly on things like money to reopen schools, border security, finance abortion abroad and checks for undocumented immigrant families. The so-called “vote-a-rama” can last until dawn from Thursday to Friday, while Republicans try to pressure Democrats into last-minute changes to the bill that Republican senators are overwhelmingly opposed to.
Schumer, however, said the legislation was extremely popular with the American public.
“It seems that the only people who are totally against this bill are Republican senators,” said Schumer on Wednesday. “Neither Republicans in the country, nor Republican mayors, nor Republican businessmen, nor small Republican companies.”
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The legislation will extend unemployment benefits, provide another round of stimulus checks, feed the hungry, help small businesses, boost vaccine distribution and reopen schools and provide more rental assistance and protection from eviction.
“Let me tell you, this bill is not a liberal wish list,” said Schumer. “This is an American wish list.”