Never let a good crisis go to waste, right?
Republicans oppose Pelosi’s coronavirus legislation, flagging ‘major’ problems
The White House and congressional Republicans have poured cold water on the House Democrats’ coronavirus legislation to provide economic relief to Americans, signaling there won’t be immediate broad bipartisan support for the pending bill unless it undergoes changes.
One senior administration official said the White House has “serious concerns†with the measure put forth by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., late Wednesday to help families deal with the economic hardships of the pandemic.
And House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the legislation “comes up short.†Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., panned the bill as an “ideological wish list,” putting the legislation in limbo.
President Trump doesn’t support the legislation in its current form and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin continues to work with Pelosi on changing some language, White House officials told Fox News Thursday morning.
Among the White House concerns are increasing spending on Medicaid, which provides health care for low-income families, without structural reforms, and not including language to ban federal funds for abortion, the official said.
McCarthy said there’s two “major problems.” First, creating a paid sick leave program through the Social Security Administration that would take six months to set up and hamper the agency’s normal functioning of disbursing checks to senior citizens. The second is forcing permanent paid sick leave “for all businesses without exemptions and no sunsets,” McCarthy said.
A lot of what Democrats have in their bill are things that won’t work right now, things in the future, and things that will never end. Did you know that the bill is 124 pages long? And, it was enough for MSNBC’s Joy Reid to opinine
MSNBC host Joy Reid appeared bewildered over reports that the proposed emergency spending bill from House Democrats to combat the coronavirus outbreak was halted over a dispute involving “abortion.”
Reid took to Twitter and reacted to one of her colleague’s reporting on the dust-up between Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
“Wow… @kasie just reported that Republicans’ objections to the House Democrats’ emergency coronavirus bill include issues related to abortion. What does that have to do with COVID19…?” Reid asked.
The Daily Caller reported on Thursday that Pelosi sought funding as what was described as a “loophole” around the Hyde Amendment, which outlaws taxpayer-funded abortions, among other things included in the bill.
No matter what, the Democrats seem to want to include abortion. Did they do this on purpose in order to attempt to get the bill spiked so they could blame Republicans?
This pretty much sums everything up: @realDonaldTrump is moving quickly to protect Americans from coronavirus and its economic impact… Democrats are spending their time trying to create an abortion slush fund! https://t.co/oFSxOLDBQj
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 12, 2020
