Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 9051 and S. 5085

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Would the Senator yield for a question?

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Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask a question of the Senator from Vermont through the Chair.

I have listened to the Republican analysis of the bill, which you and Senator Schumer are asking for a vote on. It is a bill which passed the House and would give $2,000, basically, in allotments or payments to families across America, with certain income restrictions.

And I have heard from the other side of the aisle, repeatedly, that this is socialism for the rich, that this is fundamentally unfair, and that we should do things in a targeted way. That is the argument that is made over and over again.

And reference has been made repeatedly to the COVID-19 bill that passed last week with 92 votes, including many of the Republicans-- virtually all of them. Not all of them but virtually all of them.

And so that bill, if I remember correctly, had a $600 payment included in the bill, and I asked my staff: Would you please analyze the formula for distributing the $600 and compare to it the formula for the $2,000, which is part of our bill.

And lo and behold, they discovered it is the same formula. So if there is some fundamental, moral injustice in the distribution of these funds, then I am afraid all but six of the Republicans are guilty of the same immorality because they all voted for that formula last week when it was $600 and now are scandalized by the notion that the same formula they voted for would be used for a $2,000 payment.

I am sure I have missed something in the translation here. I would like to ask the Senator from Vermont to explain this faux outrage from the Republican side of the aisle.

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