[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 10, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H1195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                EXCUSES

  (Mr. BARR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, after enactment of five bipartisan COVID 
relief bills last year totaling $4 trillion in assistance for 
healthcare workers, businesses, schools, testing, and vaccines, with 
over $1 trillion in already appropriated funds still unspent, with an 
unprecedented level of monetary stimulus from the Fed already in the 
pipeline with no end in sight, with massive pent-up demand and an 
economy poised for full recovery, with the success of Operation Warp 
Speed delivering multiple safe and effective vaccines in record time, 
with literally millions of Americans benefiting from the mass 
distribution of those vaccines every single day, with all of these 
heroic efforts to defeat this virus already in place, why is it that 
Democrats in Congress are so determined at all costs to ram through 
this hyperpartisan $2 trillion spending spree with zero bipartisan 
support?
  The answer is that they are exploiting this pandemic as an excuse:
  An excuse to force passage of this budget-busting monstrosity, 90 
percent of which is totally unrelated to COVID-19:

  An excuse to bail out mismanaged State and local governments for 
liabilities unrelated to COVID.
  An excuse to use taxpayer funds to fund Planned Parenthood.
  An excuse to send stimulus checks to prisoners and illegal 
immigrants.
  An excuse to expand the welfare state and pay people not to work.
  In sum, an excuse to advance an unrelated liberal agenda Democrats 
call the ``most progressive bill in American history'' that will lead 
to huge tax increases.
  I urge all my colleagues to vote ``no.''

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