Former House Speaker John Boehner once said, “Nothing good happens after 10 p.m.” Early Saturday morning at 2 a.m., the House passed a several thousand-page-long $1.9 trillion stimulus bill without a single Republican vote. Less than a dollar out of every 10 goes to COVID-19 relief.
“It’s just unbelievable. This thing is just so corrupt, so costly. And you look at it, it’s just so liberal. Think about it for one moment – only less than 9%. We have done five other COVID bills, and every single one of those was bipartisan,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
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McCarthy notes that a trillion dollars from previous COVID-19 relief bills remains unspent. The bill now moves to the evenly divided Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris holds a tie-breaking vote. The Senate’s parliamentarian has ruled that the $15 dollar national minimum wage included in the bill does not meet budgetary rules and must be stricken from the bill. The Biden administration has vowed to abide by that ruling.
When asked whether the vice president couldn’t just override the parliamentarian, White House chief of staff Ron Klain responded by saying, “Certainly that’s not something we would do. We’re gonna honor the rules of the Senate and work within that system to get this bill passed. This is a $1.9 trillion package that is vital to getting this country in a position to crush the virus.”
Critics say the bill is larded up with other favors to Democratic constituencies that have nothing to do with COVID-19 relief.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was also asked how this bill qualifies as COVID-19 relief. She said, “The focus of the package is getting direct checks to the American people getting vaccines in the arms of Americans and ensuring that people who need help at this very difficult time can get it, but people also have to plan. Schools have to plan to reopen. They need to do budgetary planning over the course of years. Businesses need to do that as well.”
The bill is certain to come under intense Senate scrutiny and potential change.
“Nancy Pelosi is going to get her tunnel to nowhere. Chuck Schumer is going to get his bridge to nowhere from New York to Canada. But the bill spends a lot more money than that that’s not necessary. The bill spends hundreds of millions of dollars on states that haven’t lost any money, states that have had surpluses,” said Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.
It also includes $480 million for the arts and humanities.
And this gift to federal employees: $1,400 per week to stay at home if their children use distance-learning or if they need to care for a disabled adult or to recover from the COVID-19 vaccine. One of Biden’s most prominent critics, former President Donald Trump, maintains it’s part of the incentive to keep children out of school to appease another Biden constituency, saying, “There’s no reason whatsoever why the vast majority of young Americans should not be back in school, immediately.” Before continuing on and saying, “The only reason that most parents do not have that choice is because Joe Biden has sold out America’s children to the teachers’ unions.”
The bill also includes: a new round of $1,400 stimulus checks, $400 in weekly unemployment benefits, $350 billion to state and local governments, $130 billion to schools, and $50 billion to businesses.
