Congress may be considering phase four of the coronavirus stimulus package, but Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday it's not yet clear if the third stage of the plan is working and he believes that delays for Americans to start getting unemployment payments are "unacceptable."
"Six to eight weeks to get a check is what I'm hearing and that's unacceptable," the South Carolina Republican said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "In unemployment under this bill, you're actually increasing people's wages, which will deter growing the economy. We've got to fix both of those things."
He added that the unemployment system is "broken" across the United States, and he plans to spend "a lot of time trying to fix it."
Meanwhile, Graham said he does not think it makes sense to create a fourth phase of the relief legislation before one understands if the third phase works.
"I don't want to hear anybody else compare this to the flu anymore," said Graham. "President Donald Trump has decided to extend social distancing through the end of April. Why? Because if we do nothing, 2.2 billion people are going to die of the coronavirus. That's 40 years of flu deaths in one year. So this is a terrible disease. The cure has to be tough, so the idea of creating phase four before you understand if phase three works doesn't make any sense to me."
Democrats are reportedly seeking, through a fourth stimulus bill, additional funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, and emissions restrictions on airlines, a call that was blocked from the third phase legislation approved last week.
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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