Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that it was a “mistake” for Democrats to work with Senator Susan Collins during Obama’s early years and that President Biden did not think Republicans “were serious” in coronavirus relief negotiations.
Schumer, DN.Y.’s comments, made during an interview on CNN, were amplified by the White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, who retweeted a post about the NBC interview with Sahil Kapur.
“No, you know, we made a big mistake in 2009 and 2010,” Schumer told Anderson Cooper. “Susan Collins was part of that mistake. We cut the stimulus drastically and stayed in a recession for five years.”
Collins, R-Maine, was the leader of a Republican Party delegation to the White House that intended to negotiate with Biden over what a bipartisan coronavirus plan might look like. Their initial offer would have cost $ 618 billion, significantly less than the $ 1.9 trillion plan initially proposed by President Biden.
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The White House responded to the Republicans’ proposal with a statement that said Biden would not “slow down work in this urgent crisis” or “settle for a package that doesn’t meet the moment” in the name of bipartisanship.
A $ 1.9 trillion bill along the lines of Biden’s initial proposal is expected to pass Congress and signed by the president in the next few days. Democrats forced the approval of the bill in a process called budgetary reconciliation, which allowed them to bypass an obstruction in the Senate and pass it without Republican votes.
“What was offered by the Republicans was so far from what was needed, so far from what Biden proposed that he thought they were not being serious about really wanting to negotiate,” said Schumer on Tuesday.
Schumer’s statement – and the fact that it was retweeted by Klain, who occupies the team’s most critical position in the White House – raises questions about the sincerity of Biden’s calls for unity and the government’s desire to work with Republican members of Congress .
“I found the comments by leader Schumer bizarre. He voted for the same package as me,” said Collins when asked about Schumer’s interview on Wednesday. “I think it regrettably reflects his inability to accept the fact that, despite spending $ 100 million to defeat me, the people of Maine said no. And re-elected me for a historic term.”
Collins also characterized his initial conversation about the $ 618 coronavirus account as “productive”, but said Schumer “showed that he had absolutely no interest in trying to negotiate a bipartisan agreement, despite our sincere effort to present an initial package that could serve as the basis for negotiation. “
Despite the fact that Democrats have no Republicans on board with their stimulus for coronavirus, government officials, including Klain himself, said the stimulus is bipartisan because Americans from both parties support the project.
“It’s bipartisan. Again,” Klain tweeted on Tuesday, while sharing the Pew Research Center survey numbers, showing that 70% of Americans are in favor of Biden’s stimulus plan.
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Also noteworthy is the fact that the Great Recession technically lasted only until mid-2009 and the US GDP rebounded to pre-recession levels in 2011, contrary to Schumer’s comment. This steady recovery was often praised by Democrats, who criticized former President Donald Trump for taking credit for the success of his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.
“I did not know that Democrats considered the Obama presidency to be a major failure,” Collins ‘spokeswoman Annie Clark said of Schumer’ s comment.
But the US unemployment rate took approximately five years to recover to approximately pre-recession levels under Obama.
The pre-recession unemployment rate was as low as 4.4%, but it did not fall below 6% until 2014 and it did not fall below 5% again until 2016. Republicans attributed this slow job recovery to the anti-growth policies of Obama, while Democrats said it is because the government did not spend enough money in 2009 and 2010.
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), speaks during a hearing of the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to examine covid-19, with a focus on an update on the federal response in Washington, DC, on 23 September 2020. (Photo by ALEX EDELMAN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
Biden also received credit for Collins’ vote on Obama’s stimulus last month, pointing to his efforts as positive proof of his ability to close deals. Collins was one of three Republicans to vote for the stimulus bill and Obama called personally to thank her for her vote, Fox News was told.
But Biden, at the same time, also made a statement similar to what Schumer said on CNN on Tuesday.
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“I did everything I could to approve it, including getting three Republicans to change their votes and vote in favor,” Biden said last month of the 2009 stimulus. “But it was not enough. It was not big enough. The crisis has stopped, but the recovery could have been faster and even greater. Today, we need an answer that faces the challenge of this crisis, not one that falls low. “
Biden added: “What the Republicans have proposed is to do nothing or not enough. Suddenly, many of them have rediscovered fiscal restraint and concern about deficits. But make no mistake – this approach will come at a cost: more pain for more people for longer than necessary. “
The White House did not answer a question on Wednesday morning about whether Biden agrees with Schumer that getting involved with Collins in 2009 was a mistake.
Collins said he is opposed to the Democratic and Biden-backed coronavirus bill because it contains many provisions that are unrelated to the virus and Democrats were unwilling to involve Republicans in the negotiations.
“Democrats have chosen to force a party bill through a party process. The only bipartisan thing in this package was opposition in the House,” she said. “Under the guise of providing relief to COVID-19, Democratic leaders have proposed a bloated $ 1.9 trillion package filled with provisions that have nothing to do with fighting the coronavirus, whether from a public health or economic perspective. “
Meanwhile, Klain shared another post on Wednesday bragging about the fact that Biden’s coronavirus project was “forced” into Congress without Republican support.
“Obama spent much of his first year in office seeking a bipartisan membership of the ACA,” said Eric Levitz, editor of New York Magazine, in a tweet, citing an article he published on Tuesday. “Biden just put most of his health insurance on top of a 1.9 trillion relief bill and pushed it into Congress before his government’s two-month anniversary.”
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The president took office with promises of “unity” and a vote to “lower the temperature” of political speech. He expressed a desire to work with Republicans on high-profile legislation, such bipartisanship has not yet materialized.
In fact, White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday refused to take away the possibility of using the reconciliation process to bypass Republicans in an infrastructure package.
The main serious area of bipartisanship in Washington since Biden took office is that of the Senate votes in the nominees for the president’s office. The Senate is expected to confirm Judge Merrick Garland as the next attorney general and Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, with a significant two-party majority on Wednesday afternoon.
FOX Business’ Kelly Phares, ‘Blake Burman and Fox News’, contributed to this report.