Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is shredding a $2.3 trillion spending bill passed by Congress on Monday night.
In a video shared on Twitter Monday night, Gabbard ripped into the massive bill, which included an $892 billion COVID-relief package, and the timeline Congressional leaders gave lawmakers to vote on it.
She noted that she voted against the bill and proceeded to offer an explanation, “First of all, this bill was over 5,500 pages long. We received the text of this bill at approximately 2:30 this afternoon and were told we’d have to go and vote on it just a few hours later.”
“There is no way that anybody in Congress had the opportunity or the time to go through and read this bill to know exactly what was in it,” she added.
She went on to say she has seen Congressional leaders sneak provisions into bills “in the dark of night” without “telling anyone what is in it” and then rush to pass the bill.
“This is the height of irresponsibility, and it is absolutely no way for the people’s representatives to be able to represent the interests of the American people.”
Watch the video below:
$600 is a slap in the face to every American struggling due to the pandemic. You deserve better.
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) December 22, 2020
I voted against the 5,593-page spending bill that gave billions to corporate interests, the military industrial complex & other countries, leaving crumbs for you who need help most. pic.twitter.com/82F1HYF43T
She then turned her attention to the portion of the bill that provides billions of dollars in COVID-19 relief and ripped into the $600 direct payments to Americans.
“This bill dished out hundreds of billions of dollars going towards special interests, going towards the military-industrial complex, going towards foreign countries. Meanwhile, saying, ‘Here’s what’s left for you, you get 600 bucks,'” Gabbard said.
She said the stimulus checks would not cover 25% of someone’s rent in Hawaii and claimed that it is an “insult and a slap in the face to every single American in this country who is struggling because of this COVID pandemic.”
“This bill is a representation of the screwed up priorities of Washington. They should be fighting for you and making sure that you, the American people, come first. This bill did not do that,” she added.
Gabbard is not alone in sharing her frustration with the rushed timeline for receiving and voting on the bill. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) took to Twitter to voice her displeasure that lawmakers only received the bill just hours before they were scheduled to vote on it.
