- Sen. Mitt Romney criticized Biden’s $ 1.9 billion stimulus plan at a New York Times DealBook event.
- Romney said the bill indicates too much aid to states with budget surpluses.
- The senator also criticizes the bill as a ‘clunker’ in a Wall Street Journal.
- Visit the Insider Business Department for more stories.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah sharply criticized President Joe Biden’s economic relief as excessive, wasteful, and lacking in duality during a New York Times DealBook Policy Project conference on Tuesday night during a New York Times DealBook Policy Project conference.
“There’s not much going on behind the scenes that Republicans are involved in,” Romney told Andrew Ross Sorkin, The Times. ‘I think the Democratic leadership has decided that they want to push through the plan without any changes to it, and without any input from the Republicans, and because it will be done through budget reconciliation, they do not need any of our votes. “
Through budget reconciliation, the Senate can pass budget-related legislation with just a simple majority of 51 votes instead of the usual majority of 60 votes needed in the Senate to get past the filibuster.
“I find it a very troublesome bill, not so much because of the price which is quite substantial, but because there are a lot of things in it that are simply wasteful. I wish we could use the money we use going out “China is going to borrow to do things that will make a difference,” Romney said.
In a Wall Street Journal article also published Tuesday, Romney called the bill “a clunker” that he said was “filled with bad policies and sloppy math.”
In particular, Romney said much of the $ 350 billion in aid allocated to the bill to states currently experiencing budget surpluses could be put to better use.
“Most of our states have not had a bad few years. Most of our states are doing very well. Twenty-one states actually increased their revenue during COVID,” Romney said, adding, “California has’ a record surplus for example, but it will receive $ 27 billion in borrowed money from the federal government. ‘
Romney said he “brought in a large map of the United States” “after a meeting with Biden that had a color code for the economic conditions of each state” to try to convey his concern to the White House.
“He did not respond,” Romney said. “I found my chart interesting, and he and the vice president looked at it. But I pointed out that we are sending to a bunch of states that do not need it.”
The Senate is currently divided between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, with Vice President Kamala Harris being the ballot.
Romney warned that reconciliation is a double-edged sword for the Democrats.
“What’s going on is coming around. We will one day be in the majority, and we will probably carry out the same kind of actions as it is, which is unfortunate,” Romney said.
The Utah Senator is also opposed to the Democrats’ efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, which is currently $ 7.25 per hour, to $ 15 per hour through the stimulus package. Romney argues that the $ 7.25 to $ 15 jump will be too expensive for small businesses.
The non-partisan Congress budget office found that an increase to $ 15 an hour would cost 1.4 million jobs but help 900,000 Americans out of poverty.
Ultimately, it is up to Senate MP Elizabeth McDonough to determine what can be included in a conciliation package under the parameters of the Byrd rule, which states that matters “foreign” to the budget process cannot be transferred through conciliation .
She is expected to pronounce her decision on Wednesday or Thursday, but even if she gives the green light for the $ 15 minimum increase in the bill, its inclusion could cost the key votes the Democrats can not afford to lose.
Two key moderate Senate Democrats, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Cinema of Arizona, both said they were opposed to raising the minimum anger through the reconciliation process, while Biden said in a recent call to a group of governors not to count on it. a wage increase of up to $ 15 per hour is included in the package.
Romney and Republican Senator Tom Cotton have introduced their own bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $ 10 per hour by 2025, while all employers require them to use E-Verify to prevent the hiring of undocumented immigrants and impose stricter fines to employers who do so.