Republican Senators like Lindsey Graham and Ben Sasse are blocking the coronavirus stimulus bill because they think it is too good to laid-off people.
Sen. Graham told reporters, “If you’re a nurse aide, making fifteen or sixteen dollars an hour, you’re on the front lines here. A lot of doctors’ offices are going to have to roll back because elective surgery is no longer a source of income for a bunch of doctors. So, you’re going to have all of these well-trained nurses they’re going to make twenty-four dollars an hour on unemployment. You’re literally incentivizing taking people out of the workforce at a time when we need critical infrastructure supply for the workers.”
Video of Lindsey Graham:
Objecting to a provision in the Senate coronavirus bill providing unemployment benefits for people in financial trouble, Sen. Lindsey Graham says nurses are "going to make $24 an hour on unemployment" which he claims would incentivize "taking people out of the workforce." pic.twitter.com/xyuzcsiq8B
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) March 25, 2020
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) laid it out in plain English:
Let's not over-complicate this.
Several Republican Senators are holding up the bipartisan Coronavirus emergency bill because they think the bill is too good for laid off Americans.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 25, 2020
Lindsey Graham’s example was bogus. Nurses and nurses’ aides aren’t the people who are being laid off in this crisis. People in the medical field are being overwhelmed due to the epidemic.
Graham’s real complaint about this bill is that it gives people who were laid off too much money to pay their bills and live on. The Republican Senators have no problem with big corporations getting a bailout, but they don’t want working people to be helped.
Sen. Graham is suggesting that non-rich people should be forced to starve during the epidemic.
Republicans are blocking vital aid because they think it is too good for people who are being laid off.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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