Joni Ernst on COVID Bill: ‘91% of the Bill Shouldn’t Have Passed’

During a Tuesday appearance on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) slammed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, which passed the Senate over the weekend.

Ernst, noting that 91 percent of the bill did not support “COVID-related recovery,” argued that “91 percent of the bill shouldn’t have passed.” She called for “targeted relief” rather than people from her state having to bail out “poor blue states” “that don’t manage their budgets.”

“Oh, for heaven sakes. There was 91 percent of that bill that did not go to supporting COVID-related recovery, so 91 percent of the bill shouldn’t have passed. We really need targeted relief. That is not what we saw in this $1.9 trillion package. Iowans are in particular upset about the fact that they will be bailing out blue states that don’t manage their budgets, that have excessive pensions, and my taxpayers who manage their finances quite well will be the ones bailing out these poor blue states.”

Ernst added that farmers from Iowa are “upset” the package includes funding to a specific demographic of farmers across the nation.

“There are a number of programs that will target certain populations, and yet our poor Iowa farmers won’t be able to apply if they are in a certain demographic. And so that is very unfortunate that we have singled out certain farmers and certain areas and not supported all farmers,” she concluded.

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent