ICYMI: Grassley Discusses Democrats’ Filibuster of Coronavirus Aid Package with Hugh Hewitt

Monday, March 23, 2020

 

EXCERPTS:

 

“I am very disgusted with the Senate Democrats for not moving this bill along so we can pass it today and get people back to work. The reason I’m disgusted with them is because Democrats were at the table as we brought the bill together.

 

“Out of my task force, dealing with the subjects of the finance committee, we were going to put money in the pockets of people… $1,200 for an individual, $2,400 for a married couple, $500 for each child, and we went along with an increase in unemployment compensation by $600 a week across the board for at least three months. That was the number one ask of the Democrats and I thought that was very important to do. We had great cooperation with the democrats in our task force to come up with these ideas…

 

“Where does Schumer come from when he says that we’ve got to do more for hospitals when we have an appropriations bill come along with another $75 billion just for hospitals? The other thing is he says this is a bailout for corporations. What are corporations? They’re a lot of people and 90% of them are probably employees.

 

“In this tax bill we have a lot of liquidity for these businesses to keep people on the payroll and we have a big help for small businesses. Just think of 750,000 restaurant workers probably laid off already. The small business task force has loan programs that are forgivable loans if the restaurants keep their people on the payroll. So this is all about jobs.

 

“Every Republican agrees. Everybody in the Administration agrees… we expect the country to be back to work.

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“Why would the Democrats hold it up? There’s no time to waste if you’re unemployed.

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“…We have to have a vote and I think in the meantime the democrats are going to find out that their lollygagging around is going to cause the stock market to tank again. The people are looking for leadership from Washington, D.C. They’re sick and tired of the partisanship.

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“Compared to what Schumer said about a week ago when he said we’ve got to have a big package, his package was only $750 billion, so if ours is two and a half times that you think he’d be satisfied. But he started out last night saying that this is a corporate bailout. There’s no bailout, we’re going to lend corporations money so they can keep people employed. Don’t forget 60% of the people who are unemployed are going to come out of small businesses of less than 500 people. Don’t you care about small businesses? They showed last night they don’t care about small businesses.

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“The United States is 22% of the world economy. If we get our economy moving, it’s going to help get the world economy moving.

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“I get along very well with Senator Wyden of Oregon. We work very closely together. Not only that, but we have adopted the only bipartisan bill in the United States Congress that can get 60 votes in the United States Senate and reduce the price of prescription drugs. After this pandemic, it’s the number one political issue that we hear from our constituents sick and tired of the big cost of prescription drugs. 

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“Right now, we’re worried about getting the economy going… Like the Trump economy was when employment was at a 50 year high, unemployment was at a 50 year low, that’s what we’ve got to get back to.

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“I am an optimist, yes. I think eventually, right wins out in Congress.”