House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is blocking Americans' paychecks with her efforts to keep Republicans from adding more money to the coronavirus relief Paycheck Protection Program, Sen. John Barrasso said Wednesday.
"We’re spending about $30 billion a day so we’re going to hit the limit at the end of this week," the Wyoming Republican said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"Once again, Nancy Pelosi, with her political wish list, is saying, ‘No, we’re not going to approve that unless you do all of these other things, spending money on other things that, right now, are not the focus of the American public.”
Barrasso said that about $700 million in paychecks have gone out to the nation's hard workers, but more is needed.
"As a doctor, I want to make sure that we stop the spread of disease, but also speed up relief to American workers and that means paychecks," Barrasso said.
The Senate passed the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill to help the American public by "96-nothing," said Barrasso, but now some of the same Democrats who approved it are blocking the additional money.
But Pelosi isn't calling the House back for a vote until May 4, and that's "unconscionable," said Barrasso.
"I've been talking to the Republican senators and we are ready to go back today if we felt like we could get this plan fully funded," he said.
Barrasso also commented on efforts to hold China accountable for not releasing information about the coronavirus.
"My focus is less on punishing China than it is on protecting the American people which is why a number of us are working on ways to make sure we are never dependent upon China again for critical resources whether that's raw materials, important minerals, medicines, all the things that are so critical to us as a nation," said Barrasso. "We need to be self-sufficient."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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