After Nancy Pelosi has spent months delaying the advance of any additional coronavirus relief legislation for months, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she knows who’s to blame: Republicans.
During early negotiations, as one would expect based on ideologically alone, Republicans wanted a smaller relief bill than Democrats. The most Republicans were willing to offer was a still-astronomical $1.8 trillion in spending, while Pelosi wanted another $400 billion on top of that. For reference, the CARES Act authorized $2.2 trillion in new spending, and was the largest stimulus bill in U.S. history. If Pelosi truly viewed the relief as urgent she would’ve simply agreed to any deal, especially one that only spends 18% less than what she wants, and then call for additional spending later.
Of course, actually getting a relief bill passed was never Pelosi’s goal – delaying such a bill until after the election is. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin attempted to negotiate with her, but said that she offered no compromises at all, just an “all or nothing” approach. He’d even up the GOP’s offer to $1.9 trillion to no avail.
Pelosi infamously accused CNN host Wolf Blitzer of being a “Republican apologist” when the network briefly acknowledged reality and called her out for delaying stimulus.
But in AOC’s alternate reality, none of that happened.
She tweeted yesterday “People across the country are going hungry, COVID is set to explode, and Mitch McConnell dismissed the Senate last week. I don’t know how these people can sleep at night. I really don’t.”
People across the country are going hungry, COVID is set to explode, and Mitch McConnell dismissed the Senate last week.
I don’t know how these people can sleep at night. I really don’t.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 23, 2020
Ted Cruz fired back “Why is your party filibustering $500 billion in COVID relief? And Joe Biden is cheering them on. Thinking that blocking relief somehow helps Dems win Georgia.”
The former bartender snarkily attempted to educate the constitutional lawyer that the Senate doesn’t have a filibuster, because she didn’t know what he was specifically referencing.
The House doesn’t have filibusters, @tedcruz.
We also passed several COVID relief packages to the Senate that not only include >$500 billion, but also prioritize helping real people as opposed to Wall St bailouts the GOP tries to pass off as “relief.”
Nice try though 👍🏽 https://t.co/X4YIdiXh5y
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 23, 2020
And as Fox News’ Megan Henney notes:
Democrats in the Senate have more than once filibustered a vote on the scaled-back GOP proposal, most recently at the end of October. The bill, less than a third of the size of the $2.2 trillion figured back by Democratic leaders, included boosted federal unemployment benefits, another round of funding for the Paycheck Protection Program, a key small business rescue program, money for schools and liability protections for businesses.
That is what Cruz was referencing.
And of course, if we’re to use “filibuster” as a synonym for “delay,” that perfectly describes what Pelosi has been doing too.
Cruz fired back “AOC seems not to know there are Democrats in the Senate.”
.@AOC seems not to know there are Democrats in the Senate.
Or that Joe Biden (also a Dem) is publicly calling on Senate Dems to continue filibustering COVID relief because he thinks it will help them win Georgia. https://t.co/vy5HG3h2qr
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 24, 2020
And there’s a lot more than that she seems not to know.
