03.06.21

McConnell: Purely Partisan Spending Spree “A Colossal Missed Opportunity”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Senate Democrats’ partisan COVID-19 relief strategy:

“The Senate has never spent $2 trillion in a more haphazard or less rigorous way.

“Voters handed Senate Democrats the slimmest possible majority, shrunk the House Democrats’ majority, and picked a president who promised unity and bipartisanship. Democrats have responded by ramming through what they call ‘the most progressive domestic legislation in a generation’ on razor-thin and purely partisan majorities in both chambers.

“The right path was obvious. We followed it five times last year. In 2020 we passed five historic pandemic rescue packages totaling $4 trillion. Not one of them got fewer than 90 votes in the Senate or about 80% of the House. Last March, I convened the bipartisan task forces that wrote the historic CARES Act. Republicans and Democrats worked shoulder to shoulder.

“That was the road to real pandemic relief. But this time, Democrats wanted something else. They explained their intent very clearly: to exploit this crisis as ‘a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.’

“That’s how we ended up with this massive bill that only directs 1% to vaccinations, ignores the science on reopening schools, and is stuffed with non-COVID-related spending that even top liberal economists say is wrong for this recovery. That’s why the only bipartisan feature of this bill is the group of Senators and Representatives who voted against it.

“Democrats inherited a tide that is already turning. 2021 was already poised to be our comeback year, thanks to the American people’s resilience and the bipartisan foundation we’d laid.

“We could have worked together to speed up victory. But Democrats decided their top priority wasn’t pandemic relief. It was their Washington wish-list. It was jamming through unrelated policy changes they couldn’t pass honestly.

“A colossal missed opportunity for our nation.”