House Republican leadership is recommending a “no” vote on a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill spearheaded by Democrats that closely resembles President Joe Biden’s proposed stimulus plan, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said in an email to his caucus on Friday.
Biden has proposed $160 billion for vaccines and testing, $170 billion for schools and universities, and funds to give certain Americans a $1,400-per-person stimulus check, among other provisions.
Scalise’s team, in the email, dubbed the bill as “Pelosi’s Payoff to Progressives Act.” It alleged that Democrats have rushed to bring to the floor the relief package that “will keep schools closed, bail out blue states, pay people not to work, and raise the minimum wage to $15/hour.”
“Republicans insist that we must safely reopen schools, reopen the economy, speed up vaccine distribution, and effectively spend the remaining $1 trillion from previous COVID packages,” the email from Scalise reads. “However, Democrats rejected hundreds of Republican amendments and any efforts to advance bipartisan solutions that are targeted, temporary, and tied to COVID relief.”
“We have no business borrowing an additional $1.9 trillion from our children’s future when all of that remains to be spent to help our country reopen safely,” the two wrote.
Scalise’s team said in the email, “It’s clear Democrats have no interest in approaching COVID relief in a timely and targeted fashion and are instead using the reconciliation process to jam through their liberal wish list agenda.”
The email noted 14 provisions in the bill in a list of dot points, which included a “$350 billion bailout for blue states,” and a projection that the bill would kill 1.4 million jobs by raising the national minimum wage by 107 percent to $15 an hour.
The controversial proposal in the House bill seeks to gradually raise the federal minimum wage, now set at $7.25 an hour, to $15 by 2025.
“Americans need help. House Republicans don’t care,” she alleged.
“With millions of Americans unemployed and demanding relief to reopen schools and get people back to work, House Republican leadership is demanding its members vote against a bipartisan plan to help struggling Americans,” Pelosi wrote.
Pelosi said that the bill is “supported by 73 percent of Americans (including a majority of Republicans) and backed by economists on both sides of the aisle.” She also said that bond credit rating company Moody’s Investors Service has found that the $1,400 stimulus checks will create 10 million American jobs.
If the House passes the bill, it will be voted on in the Senate, where Democrats have the smallest possible majority.
The Congressional Budget Office projected last week that the real (inflation-adjusted) GDP is projected to grow by 3.7 percent in 2021 as increased vaccination reduces COVID-19 spread. The GDP would thereby return to its pre-pandemic level by the middle of the year without any changes in government spending, according to the projection.
