McConnell on ‘The Story with Martha MacCallum’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined Martha MacCallum on Fox News Channel’s ‘The Story with Martha MacCallum’ this afternoon. See below for highlights or click here to watch the full interview.
On the Democrats $1.9 Trillion Liberal Wish list:
“This $1.9 trillion bill is the same size as the bill we passed last April right in the middle of the pandemic. This is not the same country we had a year ago. Only 9% of this $1.9 trillion is related to healthcare and less than 1% of this $1.9 trillion bill is related to vaccines. It's a wildly out of proportion response to where the country is at the moment.
“The vaccines are going out, the economies are opening up. A lot of money that was sitting on the sidelines for obvious reasons is about to begin to be spent. We think having a debt the size of our economy for the first time since World War II already doesn't argue for adding $2 trillion more when the country is clearly on the way back.”
On the Need For Targeted COVID-19 Relief:
“There is a concern about making it more advantageous to stay home rather than going back to work... We, meaning Republicans, may offer an alternative that we think fits the situation. And it’s considerably less than $1.9 trillion, $500 billion or 600 billion, which is still an enormous amount of money — but highly targeted at the healthcare portion of the problem, vaccines, kids in school.
“And we need to make sure that people are being encouraged to go back to school, not stay at home. There's no science-based reason for kids to be stuck at home now. And I think the administration ought to be advocating, even though those are local decisions, getting the kids back in school. Because the science backs that up.”
On Getting Kids Back in School:
“This is the parents versus the teachers’ union. I think the administration will be a lot smarter rather than trying to sort of pay back their teachers’ union allies to side with the parents of America who know their kids need to be back in school. We know that there's been a lot of damage done to the kids over the last year by being stuck at home. They need to be with other children their age. They need to be learning the social skills that come along with being back in school. There's no science-based reason for keeping these kids locked up at home any longer. I think the sooner the administration faces that, stands up to the teachers’ union and says “get those kids back in school” the more likely school boards across America will make that decision.”
On the Biden Administration’s Border Crisis:
“Secretary Mayorkas, head of Homeland Security, says there's no crisis at the border. That's absolutely incorrect. The crisis was created by the administration sending a message to desperate people that want to come here to just hang on, you'll get in sooner or later. And of course, the Mexican government then will become less cooperative.
“One thing the previous administration did an excellent job of, by any objective standard, was border security. And all of that is being undone very quickly in this new administration. They own this crisis at the border, they created it and they could stop it if they chose to.”
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