[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 222 (Wednesday, December 30, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7971-S7972]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Now let's talk about COVID-19 relief. Four days ago, 
President Trump signed the second largest rescue package in American 
history. The largest one was the CARES Act back in March. Due to this 
pandemic and our massive response, we now have a national debt far 
larger than our entire economy for the first time since World War II, 
but we knew our people needed more help, so Congress just passed 
another nearly $900 billion in emergency relief targeted to those who 
need it most, a second round of payroll support to save small business 
jobs, more unemployment aid, vaccine distribution money, funding for 
safe schools, and much more.
  In addition to historic amounts of targeted help at the request of 
President Trump and his team, the package also included another round 
of direct checks to households, whether or not each household needs the 
help, whether or not their finances have changed dramatically this past 
year.
  Yesterday, Secretary Mnuchin announced households should begin 
receiving these payments as early as today and this week. That is more 
good news to a lot of people.
  After Congress and the administration finalized the bipartisan bill, 
the President expressed interest in further

[[Page S7972]]

expanding nontargeted direct payments. So to ensure the President was 
comfortable signing the bill into law, the Senate committed to 
beginning one process that would combine three of the President's 
priorities: larger direct checks, a repeal of section 230 of the 
Communications Decency Act, and further efforts to review the integrity 
of our democracy--three of the President's priorities in one Senate 
process. That was the commitment, and that is what happened yesterday 
when I introduced text reflecting just what the President had, in fact, 
requested.
  Now House and Senate Democrats want something very different. As they 
tried to do countless times in the past 4 years, Speaker Pelosi and 
Leader Schumer are trying to pull a fast one on the President and the 
American people.
  First of all, they are hoping everyone just forgets about election 
integrity and Big Tech. They are desperate to ignore those two parts of 
President Trump's requests, and you can draw your own conclusions. Even 
on the question of larger checks, the Democrats have tried to warp what 
President Trump actually laid out.
  Look, it is no secret that Republicans have a diversity of views 
about the wisdom of borrowing hundreds of billions more to send out 
more nontargeted money, including to many households that have suffered 
no loss of income during the crisis. COVID-19 has not affected all 
households equally--not even close.
  It is hardly clear that the Federal Government's top priority should 
be sending thousands of dollars to, for example, a childless couple 
making well into six figures who have been comfortably teleworking all 
year. Our duty is to help get help to the people who actually need 
help, like we did, to a historic degree, just 4 days ago.
  But above and beyond that discussion, the Democratic leaders have 
broken from what President Trump proposed. They quietly changed this 
proposal in an attempt to let wealthy households suck up even more 
money. Speaker Pelosi structured her bill so that a family of four 
would have to earn more than $300,000 in order not--not to qualify for 
more cash. A family of three could pull in $250,000 per year--a quarter 
of a million dollars--and still qualify for some money.
  Democratic leaders want to call this scheme ``survival checks.'' Only 
my friends Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader could look at 
households in New York and California who make $300,000, in households 
where nobody has been laid off, where earnings have not even dropped 
during the past year, and conclude these rich constituents of theirs 
need ``survival checks'' financed by taxpayer dollars and borrowed 
money
  Everyone sees the game here. These are the same Democrats who proudly 
blocked the entire aid package for months because they tried to hold 
out their special tax cuts for rich people in rich States. Now they say 
it is a matter of survival to send another boatload of cash to people 
making $300,000, regardless of whether they have experienced any 
disruption at all this past year.
  Even the liberal Washington Post today is laughing at the political 
left for demanding more huge giveaways with no relationship to actual 
need. Here is what the Washington Post wrote: ``Especially wrongheaded 
. . . is the progressive left, spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders . . . 
who depicts the $2,000 as aid to `desperate' Americans despite the huge 
amounts destined for perfectly comfortable families.''
  That is from the editors of the Washington Post.
  The Wall Street Journal, usually their opposite number, actually 
agrees. These nontargeted ``checks are unnecessary,'' and struggling 
households can access targeted support like ``expanded jobless 
benefits, food stamps, child-care subsidies and much more.''
  The liberal economist Larry Summers, President Clinton's Treasury 
Secretary and President Obama's NEC Director, says: ``There is no good 
economic argument'' for universal $2,000 checks at this moment. He 
points out the CARES Act and the brandnew law will already have boosted 
overall household income, relative to the economy, back to its 
prepandemic levels, if not higher.
  If specific struggling households need still more help after the 
huge, historic package that was just signed into law 4 days ago has 
taken effect, then what they will need is smart, targeted aid, not 
another firehose of borrowed money that encompasses other people who 
are doing just fine.
  So, in my view, colleagues like Senator Cornyn and Senator Toomey 
have pointed this out persuasively. But, more broadly, here is the 
deal. The Senate is not going to split apart the three issues that 
President Trump linked together just because Democrats are afraid to 
address two of them. The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing 
out more borrowed money into the hands of the Democrats' rich friends 
who don't need the help.
  We just approved almost a trillion dollars in aid a few days ago. It 
struck a balance between broad support for all kinds of households and 
a lot more targeted relief for those who need help the most.
  We are going to stay smart; we are going to stay focused; and we are 
going to continue delivering on the needs for our Nation.

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