House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy accused congressional Democrats of using the coronavirus pandemic to achieve political agenda items they have long sought.
“It’s really sickening that the Democrats are using this opportunity to enforce their socialism,” McCarthy said Monday on Fox News. “Remember, what is this bill that they just passed on Friday? Well, it’s about pot, it’s about prisoners, it’s about politicizing election law, prioritizing illegal immigrants and pensions.”
The House approved a $3 trillion spending measure introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to provide further economic relief for people affected by the coronavirus.
The largest chunk of money, about $1 trillion, would go to state and local governments to assist them during a loss of tax revenue as a result of the economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus. The bill also includes millions of dollars for “environmental justice grants” and funding for the humanities, among other initiatives.
“These are all things that are socialist wish lists that they’ve been trying to pass long before COVID ever came to this land, and that’s exactly what they’re trying to do, knowing that it will not go anywhere,” McCarthy said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week Pelosi’s bill was dead on arrival in the upper chamber.
“But what you’ve seen in the House is not something designed to deal with reality but designed to deal with aspirations. This is not a time for aspirational legislation,” McConnell said. “This is a time for practical response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
Congressional Republicans have been quick to point out comments from leading Democrats who have said the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic crisis prove deficiencies and inequalities exist within America’s governing institutions.
Majority Whip James Clyburn in March called the coronavirus “a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.”
McCarthy called comments like those dangerous.
“It goes beyond AOC,” he said. “It is now throughout the entire Democrat socialist base of what they want to utilize this opportunity to, because when we wanted to help small businesses with their loans, Nancy Pelosi went to the freezer to stop it.”
