Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is slamming is Republican colleagues for opposing the push to increase stimulus checks to $2,000 as the cite concerns about the deficit.
Sanders told Fox Newsâ Bret Baier on Wednesday night, âThe debt is a serious issue, and youâre right, we are talking about a whole lot of money.â
âBut I always find it amusing that sometimes the very same people who voted for a trillion and a half dollar tax break for the one percent and large corporations, they didnât have a worry about the deficit at that point,â he continued.
âWhen it comes to hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare, these large profitable corporations, they donât worry about the deficit When it comes to working families, the mom, and dad who are struggling to put food on the table for their kids, oh my god, weâre worried about the deficit.â
Finally, he said, âSo, deficit is an issue, I agree. But I think at this moment we gotta do the right thing for working families.â
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The Vermont senator has been a vocal proponent of increasing the stimulus checks in the latest COVID-19 relief bill from $600 to $2,000.
And he has even taken to using President Donald Trumpâs comments in support of his push.
During a speech on the Senate floor, Sanders said, âWe have a very unlikely ally in President Trump. Nobody here has disagreed with Trump more times than I have. And yet, here is what the leader of the Republican Party says. He says, â$2,000 ASAP.'â
âSo even on this issue, amazingly enough, the president of the United States is right,â he added.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) claimed Democrats are âtrying to pull a fast one on President Trump and the American peopleâ by pushing for a stand-alone bill to boost the amount of the stimulus checks without addressing Trumpâs demands to review election integrity and repeal a law giving liability protections to social media companies.
âThe Senate is not going to split apart the three issues that President Trump linked together just because Democrats are afraid to address of two of them. The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrat rich friends who donât need the help,â McConnell said in a floor speech on Wednesday amid pressure to quickly pass a bill to increase the stimulus checks.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) said he opposed the push because, âIf weâre going to mortgage our childrenâs future, we need to minimize the extent we are mortgaging it, and we need to target the relief to those people who truly need it.â
Sandersâ comments come as the Senate moved forward with its goal of overriding Trumpâs veto on the $740 billion defense bill.
