Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) is tearing into President-elect Joe Bidenâs $1.9 trillion relief package.
âIn less than one year, Congress has spent $3.4 trillion on direct COVID relief aid and nearly doubled the entire federal budget,â Toomey said in a statement he released on Friday.
He continued, âBlasting out another $2 trillion in borrowed or printed money â when the ink on Decemberâs $1 trillion aid bill is barely dry and much of the money is not yet spent â would be a colossal waste and economically harmful.â
Toomey called it âsenselessâ to send âanother $1,400 to children, the deceased, and tens of millions of workers who havenât missed a paycheck, like federal and state employees.â
He argued it would âlikelyâ slow down employment recovery.
âIt was a bad idea two weeks ago and itâs a bad idea now,â Toomey added.
Biden unveiled the proposal on Thursday, as IJR previously reported.
âA crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight, and thereâs no time to waste. We have to act and we have to act now,â the former vice president said in Delaware.
The package includes $415 billion in funding for responding to COVID-19 and distributing the vaccine, approximately $1 trillion for direct payments, and around $440 billion for small businesses and other communities suffering from the pandemic.
In addition to the $600 payments issued by the last stimulus package, $1,400 stimulus payments would also be issued.
Enhanced unemployment benefits would increase to $400 a week and last through September.
Toomey said in December he would not support $2,000 payments, as IJR previously reported.
âCongress should continue helping workers whoâve lost their jobs. But blindly borrowing more than $600 billion so we can send $2,000 checks to millions of people who havenât lost any income is terrible policy,â Toomey wrote on Twitter.
He went on, âI wonât consent to a vote on that.â
