Earlier this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) demanded a minimum of $2 trillion in coronavirus relief as a starting point to begin negotiations with congressional Republicans and the White House. During an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) suggested Pelosi’s ultimatum was overplayed and pointed out that Democrats were willing to give state and local governments even more money than they were asking for.
“The Democrats, first off, are giving themselves a lot more credit than they should,” he said. “They believe that they have a lot more leverage than they actually do. They’re putting forth asks completely unrelated to COVID-19, whether it’s providing — by the way, stimulus checks to people who are legally in our country, a mass prison release, a nationwide ballot harvesting, a nationwide ban on voter I.D. And then you look at the cost of what they’re looking for. Their starting point is a little divorced from reality. Now, take the battle over state and local government funding.”
“They’re actually insisting on a position to give state and local governments more than they are even asking for,” Zeldin continued. “There was a point in time where, for example, New York was asking for $60 billion. It was part of this $500 billion national ask. Even New York State, right now, their ask that they submitted a couple of weeks ago was for $30 billion. All of the non-states — the local governments — they all rallied behind a $250 billion ask. Well, the House Democratic bill was for $375 billion — more than they were even asking for. So they need to — you have their own reality track because the president — you know, when you talk about a trillion dollars — I mean, that’s real money. And they are willing to help out with state and local government funding, but giving more than they’re even asking for is insane.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.