Speaker Nancy Pelosi has dropped hints on what the Democrats plan to put in the next bill designed to tackle the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.
Pelosi: “We Have Won the Argument”
Pelosi said that the Democrats had “won the argument” with the coronavirus relief fund bill that passed in the Senate, claiming they had got what they wanted from the final version, but that “jiu-jitsu” negotiations they engaged in with Republicans were not the end of what they had planned.
“As I’ve said, there are so many things we didn’t get in any of these bills yet in a way that we need to,” Pelosi said, referring to the three previous coronavirus bills that had been passed, not just the one in the Senate.
She hinted that the Democrats would fight for a “better definition of who qualifies for family and medical leave,” a 15% increase in food stamps, and more OSHA red-tape, to be included in the next coronavirus bills.
“We said free testing, free testing, free testing, but with free testing is the visit to the doctor’s office, the treatment that goes with it, and that has to be free as well,” Pelosi added.
We Cannot Give In!
Pelosi was slammed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell earlier this week for pushing a “wish list” of unrelated items onto the Senate’s coronavirus relief bill.
“They ought to be embarrassed,” McConnell said, as he listed off some of their demands:
Tax credits for solar energy and wind energy, provisions for employees to give special and new treatment to big labor? And listen to this: new emissions standards for the airlines. Are you kidding me? This is the moment to debate new regulations that have nothing whatsoever to do with this crisis? That’s what they’re up to over there, and the Democratic people need to know it! The Democrats won’t let us fund hospitals or save small businesses unless they get to dust off the Green New Deal!
In a CNN interview, Pelosi attempted to defend herself from the criticism, arguing that “if we’re giving tens of billions of dollars to the airlines, we could at least have a shared value about what happens to the environment.”
What sort of argument is that? Now is the time to direct funding where it needs to go, not get into debates about the environment, or talk about gender pay gap or whatever other social justice program the Democrats care about this week. I really hope they aren’t able to strong-arm Congress into giving in to their upcoming insane demands.