There is an “enormous amount of spending porn” in the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, according to a Republican senator.
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said the unprecedented spending legislation will help people and businesses in his state, including New Orleans, which is becoming a COVID-19 hot spot, but noted that his constituents are not happy that there appeared to be so many nonessential items in the package.
“I will say that a lot of my people are very upset at the spending porn on pet projects that was slipped into the bill. But my people are also grateful for help from the American taxpayer,” Kennedy said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures.
The senator blamed the Democrats for adding extraneous provisions that were agreed upon as lawmakers rushed to pass a bill to help an economy struggling due to restrictive social distancing measures meant to stem the spread of the virus.
This included $25 million for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
“There’s an enormous amount of spending porn on pet projects that was put into this bill by some powerful members of Congress. They think the American people, I guess, are morons and won’t notice, but they did. It’s why so many Americans think there’s no intelligent life in Washington, D.C. It’s why Congress polls right up there with robocalls and sinkholes,” Kennedy said.
“This is what many Americans heard members of Congress say: ‘Oh, my God, we could run out of ventilators. Oh, my God, people could die. Quick, let’s give money to the Kennedy Center and the post office,‘” he added.
“Now, that tells the American people that common sense is dead in Washington, D.C. It was not Lincoln moment. Nonetheless, those of us who are fiscal conservatives, we swallowed it,” Kennedy said. “We had to. We passed the bill. I think it’s going to help the American people. But a pox on the House and houses of all of those members of Congress who took advantage of this disaster, this tragedy, to take care of their pet projects.”
Democrats accuse President Trump of a slow response to the coronavirus. which has killed thousands of people in the United States, and are already looking at another relief package.
