Press Releases

(Washington, D.C.) – Congressman Larry Bucshon, M.D. (IN-08) released the following statement after voting against Pelosi’s Payoff to Progressives Act disguised as COVID relief legislation:

“As our nation continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still a need for Congress to pass legislation to ensure that our nation has the tools and resources to crush the virus and provide relief to the American people. Last year, Congress was able to come together and pass five bipartisan COVID-19 relief packages. There is no reason that we could not have come together to pass a sixth bipartisan package.  The only reason this partisan package came before the House is because President Biden and Democrats in Congress made the decision to forgo attempting to work with Republicans in Congress on a bipartisan bill.  Instead, they elected to focus on passing a partisan package, taking a my way or the highway approach before the bill had even been written.   

“President Biden and Washington Democrats chose this partisan path because the COVID-19 relief legislation is not really about providing relief to the American people or providing resources to help our nation in the ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.  With nearly $2 trillion in spending, less than 10% of this so-called COVID-19 relief package actually goes towards spending to address combatting the public health emergency. Additionally, funding is not being properly targeted.  For example, only 5% of the $130 billion included in the bill to help reopen schools that are currently closed due to COVID-19 will be spent this year.   Instead of focusing on targeted relief and actually spending the nearly $1 trillion of unspent money from previous COVD-19 relief bills, we are saddling future generations with insurmountable debt just so Democrats can fund their far-left wish list. 

“Democrats in Congress are hoping the American people won’t notice the hundreds of billions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars that they are spending to please their far-left radical base by advancing priorities that Democrats have been trying to pass for decades.  For example, this bill does not include Hyde Amendment protections that have protected the unborn and prohibited federal funds from being used for elective abortions for over 40 years.  It also includes a provision to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, which will prove to be detrimental to those entering the work force for the first time, costing millions of low-skilled jobs. Even more egregious is that the bill includes a tax break to be handed out to the wealthiest Americans living in states like California and New York, and billions to bail out Democrat run states while other states are being punished for managing their budgets and responsibly overseeing the COVID crisis. 

“It didn’t have to be this way, but President Biden and Democrats in Congress deliberately chose to proceed in a partisan fashion.  Unfortunately, it is the American people – especially future generations of Americans – who will bear the cost of their decision to advance a partisan bill aimed at satisfying the far-left instead of working in a bipartisan manner to provide targeted and timely COVID-19 relief to the American people.”

Background

·       Less than 9% goes to combatting COVID-19 through public health spending

·       27 percent or $510 billion goes to state and local governments

·       25 percent or $471 billion goes to policies that reduce private-sector employment

Excluding stimulus payments to individuals, almost half of the bill will not be spent until 2022 or later:

·       45 percent or $670 billion is spent in 2022 or later

·       $140 billion is spent in 2024 or later

$1 trillion in previously enacted, unspent stimulus funding remains

$510 billion to incentivize continued state and local lockdowns:

·       Bailout for Governors, including $40 billion for California, whose policies have led to the closure of more than 100,000 small businesses and kept K-12 schools closed, harming kids and working parents

Includes the $15 Washington Mandate which:

·       Raises consumer prices – hurting those on fixed incomes, including 31 million seniors

·       Destroys millions of jobs – 1.4 million according to the CBO

·       Disproportionately harms low-wage workers, disabled workers, and less educated workers