Far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Sunday declared the bipartisan coronavirus economic relief package as “corrupt” and proclaimed that the GOP’s “greed & incompetence is going to get people killed” as Senate Democrats blocked aid to millions of American workers.
“GOP *refusing to increase $ for hospitals,* but HAVE increased corporate bailout $,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Monday. “The Senate GOP plan is corrupt.”
“Their greed & incompetence is going to get people killed. Others will be displaced, or unable to eat. They‘re holding our country hostage for a Wall St payday,” she added:
“GOP *refusing to increase $ for hospitals,* but HAVE increased corporate bailout $.”
The Senate GOP plan is corrupt. Their greed & incompetence is going to get people killed. Others will be displaced, or unable to eat.
They‘re holding our country hostage for a Wall St payday. https://t.co/lySpwfDNck
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 22, 2020
Democrats blocked the emergency package on Sunday, which fell 13 votes short of advancing. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) suggested the negotiations in the Senate were “doing just fine” until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) interfered.
As Breitbart News reported:
An angry Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed Democrats for voting against the bill and blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for nixing bipartisan negotiations over a coronavirus package.
“I want everybody to fully understand if we aren’t able to act tomorrow, it will be because of our colleagues on the other side continuing to dicker when the country expects us to come together and address the problem,” the Senate leader said on Sunday.
McConnell added that there was bipartisan consensus among “regular members of the Senate, not in the Leadership office, not in the speaker’s office for goodness sakes.”
“She’s the Speaker of the House, not the Speaker of the Senate,” he added. “We were doing just fine until that intervention.”
Both sides have since reached an impasse as Pelosi and Schumer are, demonstratively, heeding the advice of Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), who urged caucus members to view the aid package as a “tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision” during a conference call last week.
McConnell met with Schumer, Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday. During that meeting, the House speaker reportedly “pushed a ‘laundry list’ of demands” that had little to nothing to do with economic relief needed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Politico reported:
Pelosi pushed a “laundry list” of demands at that meeting, according to a GOP official, including a proposal to wipe off $10,000 from anyone who owns federal student loans, as well as election-security funding. The Republicans countered those issues were not germane to the stimulus debate; Democrats say they have insisted these matters needed to be discussed all along.
While Republican lawmakers are scrambling to seal a deal to provide relief to the American people, a GOP aide also told Politico that Democrats are continuing in their attempts to “add a host of unrelated measures to the coronavirus package, including expanding collective bargaining power for unions, increased fuel emission standards for airlines and more wind and solar tax credits.”
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