Politics is driving approval of another coronavirus relief package, not the amount of money being sought, but there may not be enough time left to review further legislation before Friday's spending bill deadline runs out, former White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Monday.
"In Washington D.C., you say one thing on Monday and (something) entirely different on Tuesday," Mulvaney told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo on "Mornings With Maria." "No one seems to hold anybody accountable for it."
He continued that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not want to pass a bargained coronavirus package before the election, but she is leaning toward the bipartisan $908 billion measure because of politics, and because she wants to get an advantage for Democrats in the upcoming Georgia senate race.
"I think politics are driving everything again," said Mulvaney. "The problem here is not the amount of money, it is the amount of time ... there is now a willingness among Republicans, especially in the Senate, to talk about a smaller bill."
However there is still a "real lack of detail" in the planned bill and to get the bill vetted and reviewed by Friday will take time that may not be available, said Mulvaney.
He added that since he government will run out of funding Friday, something must be passed to keep the government open, and it would not be surprising to see the relief bill wrapped into a government spending measure.
"When I hear Nancy say she is absolutely getting something before Christmas I take her at her word to a certain extent," said Mulvaney. "I was sort of one of the folks who thought it would be done before the election. Now there are only four days left to put this together, and $900 billion sounds smaller than $3 trillion but there are a lot of details to put into a piece of legislation between now and Friday."
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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