Stimulus Update: Ted Cruz Slams Nancy Pelosi While Claiming He’s Working on Business Relief

Sen. Ted Cruz has spoken out against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi amid the ongoing deliberations over the second, and likely final, stimulus package. Both Republicans and Democrats have been at something of a standstill as Congress has already announced they will remain in session next week, instead of taking their typical Aug. 7 recess.

“There are a lot of people that are hurting, and we need to have an urgency to fix the underlying problem,” Cruz said. “And what that means, is we need to restart the economy. We need to get people back to work.” He also spoke about what he considers to be two different global crises, the coronavirus pandemic, and “an economic catastrophe” as a result. “Over 51 million Americans have lost their job. And the problem is Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats, the bill they’re pushing is a $3 trillion spending bonanza that does nothing to bring those jobs back.”

Cruz then went on to talk about his legislation that’s aimed at recovery, more specifically, eliminating regulations and taxes on businesses. It’s a similar position that most of Cruz’s GOP colleague’s share, which has led to one of the biggest issues behind the HEALS Act. Whereas the Democrats have been adamant about wanting to extend the $600 a week unemployment insurance, which was allotted by the CARES Act.

Some GOP Senators have reportedly grown increasingly anxious about the ongoing negotiations. One of their issues is the fact that they’re being kept out of the negotiations, which are only being done behind closed doors with top officials. “There is a little progress, but it is not very encouraging,” Sen. David Perdue said. “As a practical guy working on this, I am worried. My caution is that we don’t do something that is very irresponsible.” Sen. Josh Hawley has also admitted that it worries him they “have no idea” what the final product will be for America. “I think it’s concerning that we don’t have any idea really what’s going on. I think a lot of senators have that sentiment.” Sen. Mike Rounds offered how he would “really” like to see a program, “but not at any cost” to the American people.