Stimulus Checks: Elizabeth Warren Goes After Mitch McConnell for Stalling Relief

While Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are negotiating a stimulus checks bill, Senator Elizabeth Warren is going after Mitch McConnell for stalling relief efforts. During a press conference on Tuesday, Warren called McConnell out for “playing politics” and not “helping people.” She criticized his $500 billion “skinny” relief bill proposal, with she says left “people behind” rather than meeting their needs.

Who does Mitch McConnell want to leave behind? He wants to leave behind every single person in this country who is worried about COVID-19,” Warren continued. “No help for our hospitals. Not enough for tracing. Not enough for testing. Not enough for our doctors or our nurses. Just leave them behind.” Warren then addressed McConnell’s bill not including funding for schools, or for small businesses. “There are so many left behind in McConnell’s bill.”

Warren pointed out, however, that McConnell’s bill does have some “first-class tickets” written into it “for giant corporations.” One such “ticket” is a “release of liability no matter how irresponsible they are. They don’t have to worry about making their own employees or their customers sick. Sick to the point of dying. Mitch McConnell says those folks get a first class ticket on the McConnell Train.”

Next, Warren stated that McConnell’s bill forced taxpayers to “pick up the bill” for “wealthy” families who want to send their kids to a “fancy boarding school” with a full tax credit. “In other words, what McConnell is doing here is playing politics of the ugliest sort. He wants to stand up and claim that he’s helping the American people. No. He’s playing the same old game: No help for the people who need it, and lots of help for the people who don’t.”

Finally, Warren concluded her statement by making the Democrat leaders’ stance clear. “The Democrats are here for working families, for people who are struggling, for small businesses, for restaurants, for minority-owned businesses, for our doctors and nurses, for the people in public health who are trying to get their arms wrapped around this COVID crisis. This is what it’s going to take. Not only to deal with this immediate health care crisis, but also the economic crisis that is tumbling behind it. That’s why the Democrats will be voting ‘No’ today.”