On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Velshi,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stated that the bipartisan coronavirus relief proposal “is not a bill that should be passed.”
Sanders said, “Absolutely, we need direct payments. Let us be clear, what we have right now are people suffering in a way economically that we have not seen since the Great Depression. Hunger is at an all-time high, in recent years. You have tens of thousands of people facing eviction. You’ve got over 90 million people who are uninsured or underinsured. And what the American people want, they understand that in the midst of this crisis, through no fault of their own, because of the pandemic, the economy is in shambles. And they are asking the United States Congress to help them. At the very least, what we should be doing is continuing that $1,200 payment to every working-class adult in this country plus $500 for their children. In addition to that, I worry very much that, in this building, put together right now, there is legal immunity for corporations who have been irresponsible in protecting their workers. So, the fact that we are not addressing the economic crisis of tens of millions of people in this bill, and then we’re giving large corporations carte blanche to ignore the safety needs of their workers tells me that this is not a bill that should be passed.”
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