On the recordMarch 5, 2021
to most people back home in Tennessee, ``business as usual'' here in Washington means a combination of partisan bickering and reckless spending, usually after someone up high decides not to let a crisis go to waste. They are used to watching this all play out on TV, then looking at the receipt and seeing a billion dollars' worth of earmarks and pork barrel spending they didn't order. Right now, Democrats are doing their best to spin the scandal their absurb $1.9 trillion bailout bill has caused as ``business as usual'' but Tennesseans aren't stupid. They know the spin is a lie because over the past year they have seen what ``business as usual'' looks like when it comes to passing COVID relief funding. Since last March, the Senate has passed five separate relief laws with overwhelming bipartisan support, 96-1, 90-8, 96-0, 100-0, and 92- 6. But what happened with last month's vote on the budget resolution? Why did it end in a tiebreaker? For the same reason the House passed their version of the bill we are considering today in the dead of night. No amount of good PR could ever make the American people forget that this little exercise the Democrats are leading us through has almost nothing to do with providing emergency COVID relief. Nine percent. That is how much of this package Democrats want to dedicate to a national vaccination program, expanded testing, and public health jobs.…





