National Review
Why six Republicans in the Senate voted against the COVID bill
Congress passed a $ 900 billion coronavirus aid package Monday night after months of political deadlock, with the Senate voting almost unanimously in favor of the measure, with the exception of six Republican senators. The 5,593-page bill was easily passed in House 359-53 before it was passed by Senate 92-6. The six votes against the measure came from Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Rand Paul (Ky.) Rick Scott (Florida), Ron Johnson (Wisc.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Ted Cruz (Texas). six senators were largely critical of the financial and physical scope of the bill. Paul called the bill a “monstrosity of spending,” saying the “so-called conservatives” who vote the measure would be no better than the Social Democrats. without money, you lose your soul and give up forever any appearance of moral or fiscal integrity, “he said. similarly stated in a statement that the government “does not have an unlimited checking account.” “We need to spend federal dollars – money we borrow from future generations – more carefully and set limits on how much we mortgage our children’s future. . ” whereas in the spring he backed the CARES law, which led to swift and massive action to “prevent an economic crisis”, this time seeking a more targeted approach; a bill of less than $ 600 billion Scott also pushed against the “massive bill of omnibus spending that mortgages our children and our grandfather’s future.” >> Once again, in the classic Washington style, vital programs are attached a massive bill of omnibus spending that mortgages the future of our children and our grandfather.Therefore, I cannot support this bill pic.twitter.com/poShVDXzHb >> – Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) December 21, 2020 He said in -a tweet that he will not support the bill, adding in a statement that “Washington does not seem to understand that today’s new spending wants to be paid by increasing federal debt and leading to an increase in taxes on families on the road.” “The easy way is simply to go over time as Congress continues to hurt future generations of Americans, but I will not be a part of it,” he said. However, Johnson said that, although he was “glad that the closure of the government has been avoided and that the financial improvement will eventually reach many who really need it,” he criticized the “dysfunction” of the process. while Congress combined covid relief with a massive three-month omnibus bill. after the deadline and until the current fiscal year, “Johnson said.” This monstrosity was 5,593 pages long and only nine hours after the Senate first saw it. ” “I simply could not support this dysfunction, so I voted no,” he said, and Cruz and Lee also pushed against empowering lawmakers for hours to read several thousand pages of legislation. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., NY), in which the progressive parliamentarian complained that she had to vote on the bill without receiving enough time to review it, Cruz agreed that the process was “absurd.” you have a $ 2.5 trillion expense negotiated in secret and then – hours later – to ask for a vote up or down for a bill that no one has had time to read, “Cruz posted on Twitter.>. @AOC is right >> It’s absurd to secretly negotiate a $ 2.5 trillion bill and then – hours later – call for a vote up or down for a bill that no one she had time to read it. CongressIsBroken https://t.co/EQp8BfRBHj >> – Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 21, 2020 Lee echoed these criticisms by posting a video on Twitter showing how long it took just to print the bill: three minutes for just the first 100 pages of the massive bill. “Because of the length, it’s impossible for anyone to be able to read it between now and until we vote,” Lee said in the video. “And I am absolutely certain that this has been hampered by a small handful of members of Congress and their staff and to the exclusion of 98% of members of Congress from both political parties in both chambers.” “This process, by which members of Congress are being asked to blindly postpone legislation negotiated entirely in secret by four of their colleagues, must come to an end,” he said.> 1/4 This is the spending bill. “I’m being examined in Congress today. I received it just moments ago and I’m probably going to be asked to vote for it late tonight. It’s 5,593 pages long. I know there are some good things in it.” I’m just as confident that there are bad things in it pic.twitter.com/SoWXnEWYfV >> – Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) December 21, 2020 Cruz and Blackburn also criticized some of the areas of funding they did Cruz said the bill “promotes the interests of the radical left, the special interests and lobbyists in the swamp, and funding is geared toward expanding the cost of saving $ 16 trillion.” authority on In many H-2B visas for foreign workers, while an almost record number of Americans remain unemployed.[.]”It also sets the stage for Democrats to implement the Green New Deal, claiming a ‘need’ to meet US energy demand through clean, renewable or zero-emission energy sources,” he said. acknowledged that the legislation has a number of positive aspects, including the development and distribution of vaccines, school assistance and aid for small businesses, said it cost too much and included a number of measures it could not support. “I can’t afford to spend nearly $ 2.4 trillion, which will make recovery even more difficult,” she said in a statement. “I am seriously concerned about the provisions buried in the 5,593-page bill, such as extended visas, Pell grants for detainees and households with illegal aliens receiving economic impact payments. For these reasons, I voted no on enacting this legislation. . “