Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz on Sunday accused Democrats of deliberately seeking to extend the coronavirus blockade of businesses and schools so that President Trump suffers politically before the presidential election.
Teacher unions aligned with Democrats have opposed opening schools. In Los Angeles, the teachers’ union made openly political demands as part of its reopening plan, which includes paying police, taxing the wealthy, implementing a moratorium on charter schools, supplying ” Medicare for All “and getting more federal funds. .
“We are 100 days away from the presidential election: the only objective Democrats have is to defeat Donald Trump,” Cruz told CBS News “Face the Nation,” anchored by Margaret Brennan. “And they have cynically decided [the] “The best way to defeat Donald Trump is to close all businesses in the United States, to close all schools in the United States.”
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Cruz specifically questioned the Democrats’ plan for a new coronavirus relief bill, which Congress is expected to accept this week. Brennan noted that top Republicans and the White House have also voiced support for a new round of stimulus relief, which includes $ 1,200 stimulus checks and business tax credits. White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow also suggested Sunday that the White House would expand the federal eviction moratorium.
But, Cruz urged them to focus on a broader recovery bill.
“The policy that [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and Democrats are pushing to add an additional $ 600 a week of federal money to unemployment, “Cruz said.” Except, the problem is that, for 68 percent of people who receive it right now, they are paid more for unemployment than they earned. at your job. “
That was a concern that some Republicans expressed in March, although it caused some skepticism from economic analysts who were calling for a quick start to the economy. (“The weird thing about this hypothetical ‘generous unemployment payment will discourage people from entering critical industries’ is … could they just raise wages?” Wrote Alex Godofsky on Twitter at the time. “Amazon has already increased wages. It’s okay if wages and prices go up for a while. It’s okay. “)
However, on Sunday, Cruz said the problem has become more than hypothetical.
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“And I will tell you, I have talked to small business owners across the state of Texas who are trying to reopen and are calling their waiters and waitresses, they are calling their helpers and they are not going to come back,” Cruz continued. “And, of course, they won’t be back because the federal government is paying them, in some cases, twice as much money to stay home.”
As an alternative, Cruz argued in favor of a payroll tax cut and the lifting of economic restrictions. Although Brennan suggested that those initiatives could come later, Cruz said it is important to consider them immediately.
“What we should be focusing on, rather than just taking billions out the door, we should pass a recovery bill. Now what is a recovery bill? A recovery bill would be raising taxes and regulations that are affecting small businesses that people can go back to work A recovery bill would suspend the payroll tax, which would give a … a raise to everyone in America who is working That actually makes people go back to work. “
Cruz was conducting the interview from his home in Houston, where the United States ordered the closure of the Chinese Consulate, alleging that he was involved in the rampant theft of secrets. The FBI has said that dozens of Chinese military-linked investigators lied on their visas to gain access to the U.S. investigation at other institutions.
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Cruz noted that for a long time he raised the alarm to China: “The last time I did this program was from Hong Kong in October,” he said, adding that he was dressed “all black in solidarity” with the protesters in favor of democracy.
“One of the most important foreign policy consequences of this pandemic is that people understand the threat that China represents,” Cruz said. “And in particular, this virus originated due to the deliberate cover-up of Communist China. The heroic Chinese whistleblowers who tried to stop this from the beginning were arrested, silenced.”
