On the recordMarch 16, 2022
the Republican leader referred to the American Rescue Plan, which did not receive a single Republican vote in support. He referred to it as runaway Federal spending. What did we buy with the American Rescue Plan? We bought vaccines, and we bought an administration and management of delivering those vaccines to the American people in the midst of a pandemic that was claiming American lives every day. Runaway Federal spending--how much stronger would this Nation be if we were still in the depths of this pandemic? We are emerging from it, thank God. But it wasn't for lack of effort on our part on this side of the aisle. Yes, we spent the money. We administered the shots, and people across America are now protected from hospitalizations and death because of it. No apologies here to my colleague from Kentucky. It was money well spent, not just for that--and that was the number one public health purpose--but, secondly, to keep businesses afloat so they can reopen their doors as the pandemic ebbed. That investment in the capital of America, in the businesses of America, paid off for business owners who otherwise would have lost their life savings and family investments and for their workers who finally returned to work. I think it helped the small businesses, and I think it helped the families. The child tax credit, which cut in half child poverty in America--that child tax credit, according to the Senator from Kentucky, was runaway Federal spending.…
Source
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