Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told Newsmax TV on Monday that Democrat leadership in the House and Senate are so desperate to ensure passage of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion so-called coronavirus relief bill, they do not event want rank-and-file Democrats to have a say in it.
Donalds, 42, a freshman congressman who represents Florida's 19th Congressional District along the state's southwest Gulf Coast, referred to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's joint budget resolution Monday. The measure indicates the Democrats' intention to use the arcane procedure of "budget reconciliation" to pass the $1.9 trillion package with or without any Republican vote.
"It's not that they don't even want the Republicans to weigh in, they don't rank-and-file Democrats to weigh in," Donalds told "The Chris Salcedo Show." "There is no procedure in the House right now, for any committee, to hear this budget bill before it gets dropped. This is going to be a shell bill with nothing really in it, so it can go to the Senate, where [Sen.] Bernie Sanders [I-Vt.] can fill it with whatever the COVID relief package is that Joe Biden wants."
Donalds decried the reported $350 billion earmarked for state and local governments, Democrat-controlled regions which imposed relatively dramatic economic restrictions to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus, additional money for schools when teachers in Chicago are refusing return to the classroom, and an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
"You have wish list after wish list," Donalds said. "This package is outrageous and they don't want any dissent. They don't want any debate. They don't even want a comment. They just want to go to the vote, go and take it to a vote, because they have the numbers right now."
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