Leader McConnell on the Guy Benson Show
‘This was the third coronavirus bill that we've passed and the biggest one by far. And it was crafted by a Republican majority in the Senate, approved without a single dissenting vote.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined Guy Benson yesterday to discuss the Senate’s 96-0 vote to pass the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. See below for highlights or click here to listen to the full interview.
On the Economic Relief in the CARES Act:
“Well, it is a rescue package. It's not expected to go on forever. That part is certainly the case. We're trying to bridge the gap here between where we are today and where we hope to be once this pandemic has experienced a curve -- a curve downward. And so we are trying to get direct money into the hands of individuals and to small businesses and big businesses too who are in trouble and losing employees have an opportunity through the Treasury Stabilization Fund to receive assistance as well and they can show that. So -- and that's - it is emergency. It's not supposed to be permanent change.”
On Washington Democrats’ Wish List:
“That's what I was trying to fend off when the speaker of the House decided to try to come over to the Senate and tell us how to write the bill. She wanted to practice what Rahm Emanuel famously said after the financial crisis in 2008, said never let a crisis go to waste. In other words, seize upon crisis to try to makes systemic or policy changes you couldn't otherwise pass.”
…
“What we also rejected was a whole laundry list of completely unrelated items that Pelosi, Sunday a week ago, wanted to shoehorn into this deal that has to do with all of these left-wing agenda items that they've been pursuing over there and some other areas where there are problems, but it doesn't have anything to do with the coronavirus situation. For example, pension reform. Well, yes, we need to do something on pension reform, but it had nothing to do with this subject. And she wanted to shoehorn that into -- into the bill as well. So look, it's not in dispute that what they were trying to do was take advantage of the crisis to accrue things unrelated to the crisis that they couldn't get through the Senate otherwise. No question about that.”
On What Comes Next:
“What I disagree with the speaker on is she's already saying we need to work on phase four. Well look, the current law has not been in effect for even a week yet. … I mean the implementation of this -- the Treasury Department's got a massive, complicated problem here in getting all of this money out rapidly. And the speaker is already talking about phase four. Well, we may need a phase four, but we're not even fully into phase three yet. This was the third coronavirus bill that we've passed, and the biggest one by far. And it was crafted by a Republican majority in the Senate, approved without a single dissenting vote.”
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