Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:33 pm
The Coronavirus pandemic has not only killed over 500,000 Americans, it has devastated millions more financially. That is why one of Joe Biden‘s early hopes is to get money out to these struggling people.
And the plan Biden has put forward is very popular. Polling shows that 68% of people asked are behind the plan that Biden and his team are proposing.
According to Susan Collins, though, 0% of Republican senators will be supporting the package. The Maine senator outlined her concerns on Tuesday afternoon.
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“The administration has not indicated a willingness to come down from its $1.9 trillion figure and that’s a major obstacle,†she said. “We have indicated a willingness to come up from our $618 billion, but unfortunately the White House seems wedded to a figure that really can’t be justified given the hundreds of billions of dollars that are still in the pipeline from the December bill.”
Collins continued, “What we’re looking at now is whether there are changes that we could make. But I would be surprised if there was support in the Republican caucus if the bill comes out at $1.9 trillion even if we’re able to make some beneficial changes.”
Susan Collins says talks with the White House have stalled because they aren’t willing to lower the $1.9T cost for Covid relief.
Good, we don’t need her permission to help Americans survive. 🖕🖕
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) February 23, 2021
The Maine senator closed her comments, “The first package they put out the explanation of in the $160 billion, which we all believe is the right number for COVID vaccine, manufacturer distribution for extra tests, etc. But there was $50 billion in there, that just said unidentified. I mean, that is not acceptable. We’re not going to give a blank check on ‘unidentified.’ I mean, that’s extraordinary.”
Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.
