Coronavirus

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Would my colleague from Vermont yield for some support for his amendment?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. I will speak briefly. And I thank my colleague.

I join my friend Senator Sanders to support his amendment to give $1,200 in direct financial support to the American people in the yearend emergency relief bill.

Now, this effort should not subtract from any other program already in the bill, like enhanced unemployment, aid to small businesses, education, healthcare, or any other provision. We don't need to offset the cost or cut from elsewhere in the bill to make sure the stimulus checks are $1,200 for each adult and then money for children and others, as he will elaborate. Much of the money will go back into the economy anyway.

The reason for the amendment is simple. Over the course of this pandemic, working Americans have taken it on the chin. Millions have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Twenty-six million have had trouble putting food on the table in the last 5 weeks, bread lines stretching down American highways. Twelve million Americans will owe an average of $6,000 in rent and mortgage payments. So we have an opportunity in this emergency relief bill to give financial aid directly--directly to those Americans. It could mean the difference between Americans paying the rent or not, affording groceries or not, the difference between hanging on until the vaccine helps our country get back to normal.

Now, the only objection we have heard is that this will add too much to the deficit. That is why a Republican Senator rejected a similar request earlier today--to push a baseless agenda of austerity. Please.

By now, Republican objections over the debt and deficit are comical. They added $2 trillion to the debt with a massive tax cut for corporations and the wealthy, and that was during a steady economy. But now the economy is on life support. Americans are queuing up on bread lines and filing for unemployment. Just as a Democratic President is about to take office, all of the sudden the deficit scolds are back

It is ludicrous. Chairman Powell--hardly a big liberal--of the Federal Reserve insisted: ``The risk of overdoing it is less than the risk of underdoing it.''

The quickest way to get money into the pockets of the American people is to send some of their tax dollars right back where they came from. So let's step up to the plate and deliver the $1,200 survival checks to millions of Americans before the holidays.

I support Senator Sanders' request fully and hope the Senate will consent.

I yield back.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source