West Virginia Republican Governor Jim Justice urged Senate Republicans to “swallow” the high price of President Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid plan, warning lawmakers that “you will leave many people suffering “if they continue to oppose the legislation.
Justice responded in the “Special Report” after Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, rejected Biden’s proposal as a “disaster” full of Democratic pet bills and unrelated items.
“I have all the respect in the world for a good senator … [and] you have to understand, I’m not an advocate for the projects, I can’t stand them, ”Justice said to presenter Bret Baier.
“But,” he added, “in this whole situation, we are going to have to be able to swallow something to get everything across the finish line.”
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Romney is one of several Republican lawmakers who criticized the clauses described in the relief bill. Among them are $ 1,400 stimulus checks that go to mixed-status families with undocumented immigrants; permission for Planned Parenthood to receive funds from the Payment Check Protection Program (PPP) to keep small businesses running; and nearly $ 600 million allocated for additional paid emergency family leave for federal employees and US Postal workers.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, RN.Y. predicted that the Senate would approve the bill before March 14, but Biden could face serious challenges in his attempt to obtain Republican support for his proposal, especially with a minimum federal $ 15 an hour wage requirement and debate over how much money should be channeled to struggling state and local governments.
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Justice said he expected Republicans to accept the idea even if “we happen to throw a few dollars away” to “really start our economy and take care of all the people who are suffering.
“We are going to grow up enough to get there,” he said. “We don’t have to throw money away just to throw money away. But we have to grow up enough to make it happen.”
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The governor of West Virginia also praised the program to distribute the coronavirus vaccine in his state, which is among the most effective in the country. Justice said that 100% of the doses received by the state were administered or intended to be administered.
“This was not rocket science and it is not rocket science yet,” he said of the vaccine’s launch in the state.
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“Our model is very simple … our local pharmacies, all of our local clinics, our National Guard have stepped up and we have taken off,” explained Justice. “We ran away with the people we knew were going to die [if infected], and these were our elderly, and we certainly went back to school because we vaccinated all of our teachers and service personnel from the beginning. “
“We look at it as age, age and age,” said Justice, “and that’s all there is to it.”
Fox News’ Edmund DeMarche contributed to this report.