Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar lamented Friday that more Americans received a greater amount of coronavirus-related economic aid under former President Donald Trump than they will receive under President Joe Biden.
Despite Democrats now controlling Congress and the White House, Democrats thus far have failed to deliver on their promises of distributing the economic aid they say Americans desperately need.
What did Omar say?
Speaking on CNN Friday, the Minnesota Democrat lamented that Trump and Republicans were willing to give Americans more aid than Democrats are now.
“I see it as a really disappointing development. We obviously are now ultimately sending money to less people than the Trump administration and the Senate majority Republicans,” Omar admitted.
“This is not the promise that we made, this is not what we are given the opportunity to be in the majority in the Senate and to have the White House,” Omar continued. “And so ultimately it is a failure when we compromise ourselves out of delivering on behalf of the American people and keeping our promises.”
Omar went on to explain the income thresholds in the forthcoming Biden-led stimulus bill mean that fewer Americans will receive direct aid.
“The last checks that we were able to send had given 17 million more people than what we will ultimately do with the caps now, and that is going to be something that we’re going to have to explain,” Omar explained.
“I don’t know if many of us have a logical explanation on why we are delivering less than what the Republicans were willing to compromise us on delivering on the American people,” she added.
Later in the interview, Omar suggested that Democrats were squandering their majority power by not delivering on promises they made.
Democrats promised they would pass $2,000 stimulus checks if they won both Georgia runoff elections. But Democrats immediately equivocated after winning both races, instead proposing only $1,400 checks.
Omar noted that Democrats cannot blame Republicans “for our inability to deliver on the promises that we made.”
Anything else?
The Senate on Saturday passed the massive $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package being championed by Biden’s administration.
Before heading to Biden’s desk for final approval, the House must first approve changes the Senate passed.
Zero Republican senators voted for the bill, citing massive spending unrelated to COVID relief that Democrats stuffed into the bill.
“This weekend’s spending is bigger than the entire annual economy of Canada, yet only one percent of it is vaccine-related. Here’s how midnight spending bills go down: Senators hide a bunch of crap behind titles like ‘The Cuddly Puppies Act,’ and then say anybody voting against it hates puppies. This $1.9 trillion ’emergency’ bill is overwhelmingly non-emergency — we should’ve just bought Canada too,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said.
