Sen. Mitt Romney
Willard (Mitt) Mitt Romney If GOP blocks Biden’s COVID rescue plan, America’s working poor will suffer The Hill’s 12:30 report: Biden tests GOP negotiation skills in today’s COVID relief meeting GOP senators unveil 8 billion coronavirus proposal ahead Biden meeting MORE (R-Utah) said it was disrespectful to Republicans to criticize Democrats for plans to spend trillions of dollars after the GOP remained largely silent about its shortcomings among former President Trump
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‘When we had a Republican president and the House and Senate, we kept spending and adding nearly a trillion dollars a year to national debt. Now are we saying it’s outrageous to add so much to debt? They say we did the same thing when we were in charge. It does show that you have to be consistent in your arguments, ‘Romney said on the podcast “Utah Politics.”
The remarks come as the GOP raises the alarm about a $ 1.9 billion coronavirus relief package being pushed by President Biden. Many Republicans, including Romney, say the price is too high, noting that Congress allocated $ 900 billion at the end of last year to tackle the pandemic.
Democrats, however, have argued that these concerns fly in the face of a spate of spending during Trump’s administration, including in 2017 and 2018, when Republicans controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Democrats are taking the first step toward adopting Biden’s coronavirus package using budget reconciliation, a process that will eat up floor time in the Senate but make it possible by a simple majority, rather than the typical 60 votes cast. necessary to pass legislation.
Republicans said the process, which would effectively set aside the 50 GOP senators, would not be able to meet Biden’s calls for unity. But Romney notes that Republicans used the procedure to implement broad tax cuts in 2017.
“There is no doubt that the other side will do it if they do things that break the precedent or break tradition,” he said. “If, on this basis, we draw up a tax program that does not require democratic votes through reconciliation, we can hardly explain why we are not satisfied with what they would do at this stage.”
Romney is among a group of ten GOP senators who are campaigning for a smaller $ 618 billion coronavirus proposal. Biden in a call with the Senate Democrats on Tuesday called on senators to ‘go big’ and move quickly to introduce a COVID-19 bill. Biden has indicated that he is open to some of the Republican senators’ ideas, but has told lawmakers that it is clear Congress needs to accept a $ 1.9 billion package.