Republicans are at odds with each other over the ever-increasing cost of battling the coronavirus.
Senate Republican leaders were forced to slow down a coronavirus aid package thanks to an internal dispute over how much more the federal government should spend. The latest package assists individuals, families, businesses, governments, and healthcare facilities in battling the virus, which has surged in at least a dozen hot spots across the country.
While some Republicans agree with Democrats that Congress should pass another round of aid, other GOP lawmakers want to wait to see the full impact of the nearly $3 trillion already passed into law. Others are balking at provisions to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out states and bolster unemployment insurance payments.
“I don’t think we should be authorizing a dime more until we know exactly where the $2.9 trillion went and how we are going to spend what hasn’t been spent,” Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, told the Washington Examiner.
Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, will hold an oversight hearing on July 28 to examine the coronavirus funding.
Johnson said lawmakers should focus on redirecting hundreds of billions of dollars in unspent aid. “We are $26 trillion in debt, and by the end of the year, we’ll probably be at $27 trillion or $28 trillion. This is completely out of control.”
Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who keeps a debt clock running in his office, bluntly stated his opposition to the plan as he strolled by reporters on his way to a GOP meeting to discuss the $1 trillion proposal.
“This is insane,” Paul said. “We are ruining the country.”
Paul told reporters he would “do everything to slow down the process” of passing the measure in the Senate.
The GOP discord has made it much harder for Republican leaders to win consensus within the party on a measure that can be a solid starting point in negotiations with Democrats. They are playing up the internal GOP divide in a pivotal election year and pushing their own $3 trillion plan.
“They are so divided,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Thursday. “And there’s no leadership from the president.”
The federal tab is already creeping close to $3 trillion, all of it added to the deficit. Congress passed four coronavirus aid packages earlier this year, but the GOP’s appetite for more spending has grown far weaker despite virus surges in some parts of the country.
Last week, Senate Republican leaders were edging toward a $1 trillion package that would include a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks, $16 billion for testing, treatments, and vaccine development, and $105 billion to help schools reopen safely.
But persistent opposition from GOP conservatives has slowed down the efforts to produce a bill.
McConnell announced Thursday that he plans to introduce the bill early this week after a review by the Trump administration.
Many Republicans in his conference are opposed to the price tag and provision in the measure, including one that would give states $150 billion to help them cope with drastically reduced tax revenue in the wake of the coronavirus lockdowns.
Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said the measure would include nothing to prohibit states from using the money to bail out long-mismanaged state pension funds.
“Why would a Florida taxpayer now have to subsidize an Illinois pension plan that this would fund? Or New Jersey’s pension?” Scott, a former Florida governor, said. “Many of them moved out of these states, and now, they’re paying it again.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said the GOP plan is already bloated at $1 trillion. Instead, Congress should propose regulatory changes to make it easier for small businesses to operate and hire, expand school choice, and access health savings accounts. Cruz also believes in moving to end U.S. dependence on China for rare-earth minerals needed for manufacturing and defense.
“We can’t just keep shoveling cash at this,” Cruz told Fox News last week.
Even as the Republicans struggle among themselves to produce a bill, the hardest negotiations lie ahead.
Democrats are digging in on their own $3 trillion plan and are opposed to the GOP’s efforts to reduce the expanded $600 weekly unemployment benefits that Republicans say incentivize staying home instead of returning to work.
The Democratic proposal includes “hazard pay” for workers and a bailout for state pension plans and the U.S. Post Office. Democrats have separately introduced legislation to give schools and universities $430 billion, more than 4 times the GOP allotment for education.
Republicans know that as soon as Democrats enter the negotiations, the final plan will likely become much more expensive than $1 trillion.
“What are the odds we stay there?” Scott said. “I think it’s pretty remote.”
