Congressional Democrats are pushing for additional COVID-19 relief measures to help blunt the economic impact from the coronavirus shutdowns.
However, Republicans are accusing their colleagues of using a global pandemic to implement a socialist agenda in the United States.
During an interview on Fox News on Monday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) said, “It’s really sickening that Democrats are using this opportunity to enforce their socialism.”
He continued to tick off a series of provisions in House Democrats’ recently passed $3 trillion coronavirus bill which he called a “socialist wishlist.”
“These are all things that are [a] socialist wishlist that they’ve been trying to pass long before COVID ever came to this land. And that’s exactly what they’re trying to do, knowing that it will not go anywhere. They’re just using this as an opportunity to restructure government,” McCarthy added.
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On Friday, the House passed the Democratic bill in a narrow 208-199 vote.
The latest bill expands upon the $2 trillion CARES Act that was signed into law in late-March.
Democrats’ newest bill would give hazard pay to workers on the frontline of the coronavirus fight, provide $500 billion for state and local governments, and provide another round of direct payments to Americans.
The bill is not expected to make it very far, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blasted the bill and said that it is “hardly salvageable.”
“It’s a 1,800-page liberal wish list. It strikes me as hardly salvageable,” McConnell said on Thursday, adding, “It’s a parade of absurdities that can hardly be taken seriously.”
Additionally, President Donald Trump said the bill is “dead on arrival.”
While Republicans have balked at another spending package right now, Democrats argue the country needs a “Rooseveltian” package to help the economy.
“This is a crisis. This is not simply you take out a page out of a conservative playbook, conservative economics handbook of 2017,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
He added, “This is new, adopt to the times. Let me say something, when we had the Great Depression, there were people who said let’s sit and do nothing. They didn’t go down in history very well. Franklin Roosevelt did.”
