Democrats Have Run Out of Excuses Not To Legislate for American Families
‘We are not going to let Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic Leader kill and bury coronavirus relief behind closed doors without putting every Senator on the record… Tomorrow, American families will learn who wants to make a law for them… and who is happiest if they get nothing.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding COVID-19 relief:
“Anyone watching the Senate yesterday saw another installment in an ongoing series that has become somewhat familiar.
“Republicans roll out yet another effort to forge a bipartisan compromise around coronavirus relief… and Democrats reply with partisan cheap shots and threats to block everything.
“Republicans develop a serious plan to get historic amounts of additional money in the pipeline for kids, jobs, and schools… and Democrats just point fingers, call names, and keep blocking American families from getting any more help before the November election.
“In July, Republicans put forward a serious framework, but Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic Leader refused to talk unless the starting point was their absurd, $3.4 trillion far-left wish list that even House Democrats called a stunt.
“In August, with those talks stalled, Republicans proposed narrow agreements on specific urgent policies to help families. Unemployment benefits. The Paycheck Protection Program. Democrats refused again. This time, their invented excuse was that any assistance short of their entire wish list was too “piecemeal” and not worth doing.
“If Democrats didn’t get their diversity studies for the cannabis industry, stimulus checks for illegal immigrants, and tax cuts for blue-state millionaires, they’d make sure millions of Americans would lose their unemployment benefits and the PPP would close.
“That’s what they threatened… and that’s what they did.
“So here we are in September.
“Schools and colleges have gone without the $105 billion that Republicans wanted to give them in July. That’s more money than Speaker Pelosi put in her bill.
“American workers have gone without the second round of the PPP that Republicans proposed weeks and weeks ago. Speaker Pelosi had no money for the PPP in her bill.
“The race for treatments and vaccines has gone without the additional funding that Republicans wanted to deliver.
“Families have gone without the economic relief that Republicans wanted to put in their pockets.
“And Washington Democrats have just kept trying to run out the clock until November.
“But here’s the thing. This Senate majority works for the American people. We fight for American families.
“We are not going to let Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic Leader kill and bury coronavirus relief behind closed doors without putting every Senator on the record.
“So we have put together a new, targeted proposal containing several of the most urgent and most popular policies that would help Americans right away. And tomorrow, the whole Senate will vote on it.
“It will be a procedural vote. It’s not a vote to pass our bill tomorrow precisely as written.
“It’s a vote for Senators to say whether they want to move forward toward huge amounts of relief for kids, jobs, and healthcare... or whether they are happier doing nothing.
“That is what every single Senator will decide tomorrow. Do you want to do something? Or do you want to do nothing?
“Democratic leaders know this simple choice will put the spotlight on their partisan antics. They know this vote will expose their obstruction.
“Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer were attacking our new proposal yesterday before they’d even read it. Before it had even come out.
“I would normally make fun of that, but in this case, it makes perfect sense. Because their position is clearly that they do not want any bipartisan relief whatsoever to reach American families before the election.
“They didn’t even need to see what we were proposing. If it helped working families in any way between now and November 3rd, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer knew they opposed it.
“Their red herrings and cherry-picked arguments have now given way to total dishonesty.
“Yesterday our colleague from New York railed against a provision pertaining to critical supply chains, calling it some sinister giveaway to big business.
“That provision is cosponsored by his own Democratic Ranking Member on the committee. So either the Democratic Leader is impugning his own Ranking Member right along with Republicans, or else he simply doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
“Likewise, the junior Senator for Vermont attacked this provision as “corporate welfare,” but he himself did not vote against this very provision in committee. On two occasions.
“They are so desperate to keep working families from getting any help before the election that some Democrats are now attacking things they supported!
“At this point, it’s just silly season on the Democratic side. They have run out of excuses not to legislate, and even their cheap shots just backfire in embarrassing ways.
“But tomorrow, the Senate will cut through all the noise with one vote. Every Senator will either say they want to move forward, agree where we can, make a law to help people, and keep arguing over our differences later… or say they prefer to do absolutely nothing.
“Every Senator will vote on this significant package which secures federal unemployment benefits; re-opens the PPP for a second draw; sends more than $100 billion to keep kids safe in school; helps parents with childcare; helps families afford expenses or homeschooling; and rebuilds our strategic medical stockpile.
“This is not a simplistic argument over big versus small. Republicans want more money for K-12 and college than was in the Democrats’ bill. We want more money for the PPP, which their bill forgot to fund. These are bipartisan priorities that Democrats left behind and Republicans want to take care of.
“Tomorrow, American families will learn who wants to make a law for them… and who is happiest if they get nothing.”
Related Issues: Health Care, Jobs, Senate Democrats, Education, Small Business, COVID-19
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