“His goals are to shovel cash into the problem and shut the United States down,” Cruz said of Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
“The only goal Democrats have is to defeat Donald Trump, and they have cynically decided that the best way to defeat Donald Trump is to close all businesses in the United States, to close all schools in the United States,” Cruz added. “Nancy Pelosi talks about working men and women. What she is proposing is to prevent men and women from working.”
Cruz was one of the few Republican senators who voiced opposition to legislation being negotiated by Republican leaders in the Senate and White House.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday the administration will oppose extending additional unemployment payments of $ 600. Republicans, who say the benefit has been Generous enough to convince many unemployed Americans not to find a job, they seek to enact a new measure to replace 70 percent of workers’ lost wages.
Cruz did not say if he would be willing to receive fewer unemployment benefits on the bill, but he blamed the payments for making it harder for small businesses to hire backward workers.
“They will not return. And, of course, they will not return because the federal government is paying them, in some cases, twice as much money to stay home,” Cruz said.
He argued that pandemic legislation should include measures such as a payroll tax cut, which President Trump had lobbied for. The proposal died amid opposition from members of both parties.
“What we should focus on instead of just taking billions out the door, we should pass a recovery bill,” Cruz said. “A recovery bill would be lifting the taxes and regulations that are affecting small businesses so that people can go back to work. A recovery bill would suspend the payroll tax, giving a pay raise to everyone who is working in the United States. “
