House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) criticized House Speaker Pelosi’s COVID relief package, with a nearly $2 trillion price tag, that Cheney characterized as “not targeted, temporary, or related to COVID.”
The Senate passed the hefty package over the weekend and the House is expected to take up the legislation again this week. Cheney noted that Pelosi opted against bipartisanship in the crafting of the package that is full of unnecessary spending.
“It’s a real tragedy when you look at that package, we know that the results of that package are going to be middle-class tax increases, we know for sure that it includes provisions that are not targeted, they’re not temporary, they’re not related to COVID, and it didn’t have to be this way,” Cheney told reporters on Tuesday. “We could have had a bill that was a fraction of the cost of this one that could have gotten bipartisan approval and support, but the Speaker decided to go in another direction. We are going to be saddled with a burden, a spending burden, and a tax burden that is really indefensible from the perspective of what it actually accomplishes."
House Democrats’ nearly $2 trillion COVID bill is not targeted, temporary, or related to COVID. We could have had a bipartisan bill at a fraction of the cost, but Speaker Pelosi put her radical agenda first instead.https://t.co/fuqbd2Nqh5 pic.twitter.com/1A0pXUVeFI
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) March 9, 2021
In addition to the hefty price tag attached to the American Rescue Plan, the legislation disproportionately benefits states that ordered strict, year-long lockdowns during the pandemic, rather than states that opted to reopen economies. The House is expected to pass the package, sending the bill to President Biden’s desk.