Republicans have one goal for President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package: to erode public support for the rescue plan by portraying it as too big.
It’s a strategy Republicans used when Barack Obama led the U.S. out of the Great Recession, but it comes at an uncertain, volatile time for the nation.
March 5, 2021
Sen. Ted Cruz says only 9% of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan “focuses on health spending” and that the remaining “91% is a partisan wish list paying off the Democratic special interests that got them elected.”
While arguably 9% of the bill is for COVID-19 health spending depending on how one defines that term to call the remaining 91% a “partisan wish list” ignores that Republicans offered an alternative $618 billion rescue bill that included many of the same elements of the Democratic plan, albeit in smaller amounts.
For example, the bill passed by the House Democrats includes $1,400 stimulus checks for individuals earning less than $75,000 and $2,800 to married couples earning less than $150,000. That is estimated to cost about $422 billion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
President Biden hopes to sign the bill into law next week providing it passes the lower chamber, where it is being introduced in a substantially amended form.