Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., challenged Democrat Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal to come along with him to his northeastern district and discuss the $1.9 trillion spending bill passed Wednesday after she claimed the package was overwhelmingly popular.
''Well I welcome her to come with me back home to northeast Florida, and I will happily explain to our constituents, our conservatives, how this is more spending than the United States had in all of World War II, how we've now spent more dealing with COVID — it's larger than the GNP of all countries in the world, except the United States and China, and we still have $1 trillion left unspent from the one we just spent in December,'' Waltz said on Newsmax TV's "Spicer & Co."
''But look, the Democrats and progressives are selling this with a four-letter word called 'free,' but I think as people unpack what's actually in it, how much pork is in it, how 91% of it has nothing to do with coronavirus and how this is the largest expansion of the welfare state, this is the biggest giveaway of our grandchildren's money since the 1960s since (President) Lyndon Baines Johnson. At the end of the day, China continues to be the big winner here.
''They unleash this virus on the world. They cover it up. And their military planners plan on the United States going bankrupt before they make their moves militarily to become the dominant world power. And we're just driving right off that fiscal cliff.''
Jayapal touted the bill saying 76% of the public supported it and Republicans would have to ''explain'' why they voted against it. Waltz said it was an easy lift.
''One day this chicken is going to come home to roost, and it's going to be our children and grandchildren (to pay),'' Waltz said, adding there were elements of the bill that most media outlets chose not to mention in their reporting of the bill. ''Yeah, $60 billion in tax hikes and one of the provisions goes on pass-through income. The vast majority of small business are organized as an LLC that have pass-through income and they've extended and wiped out their ability to deduct losses.
''So again, we have liberals qualifying people as rich when, in fact, this is business income to reinvest back in the business.''
The 47-year-old Waltz, who represents Florida's 6th Congressional District between Orlando and Jacksonville on the state's east coast, also decried the extension of the federal supplement to unemployment benefits.
''Bottom line, people are making more on unemployment rolls, and business after business is calling saying they can't hire their people back because they're making more sitting at home than they are on the job, and it is destroying small businesses,'' Waltz said.
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