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“Democrats are using the coronavirus so that their favored groups get a giveaway. The efforts to get the coronavirus behind us and get our communities and our country open must be targeted, must be temporary and must be tailored to the needs of our communities at this critical time in our nation’s history.”

Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) spoke on the Senate floor about how Democrats are playing politics instead of working on policies that actually help Americans recover from the coronavirus crisis.

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:

“Americans have come together in this moment. We’ve come together to defeat the coronavirus. We’ve come together to ramp up testing, to ramp up health care. And to reopen our communities and our country.

“The coronavirus has brought out the best in so many ways in America and in the American people.

“From our frontline health care workers taking care of patients, to scientists and researchers working on testing, on treatment and on vaccines, to those in public service keeping essential parts of the government running day in and day out, to those working on supply chains to deliver goods 24 hours a day, and to those who are staying home to keep themselves and keep others safe. Americans are in this together.

“It’s interesting because all we’re seeing from the other side of the political aisle is more of the same old politics and name-calling.

“President Obama is taking cheap shots at President Trump. Speaker Pelosi just put out a $3 trillion bill that reads like the Democratic Party Platform. And Joe Biden is hold up and hiding in his basement.

“Is this the best that Democrats can offer? Is this the best that they can do?

“Biden, Obama and Pelosi should be embarrassed. This is not leadership.

“Republican policies in the CARES Act that we passed actually have had significant results. Real results.

“The Paycheck Protection Program making sure 50 million Americans are still getting their paychecks. Economic Impact Payments which are reaching 130 million families.

“Now, these are polices that are going to build a bridge for the country to get to the other side of the devastation done by the virus.

“And still more money and resources from the CARES Act are slated to go out to states, to hospitals, and to small businesses all across America.

“Altogether, between Congress and the Federal Reserve, we’ve injected close to $9 trillion into the economy in just a couple months.

“And all of this money is nowhere close to having even been spent.

“In fact, it’s only because of the steps that we’ve taken already, the efforts of governors across the country, the work of this administration, that the House Democrats have found themselves in a position as they were last Friday of wasting time and energy on a fantasy bill.

“Republicans now have two jobs.

“The first is to get the country back on track.

“And the second, is to not allow the Democrats to try to exploit the crisis that is upon this country for their own political gains.

“Democrats are pushing their agenda as a cure-all for the virus. It is not. It is simply a solution for their electoral problems.

“Yesterday, the New York Times published a front-page article, online it was called, ‘Seeking: Big Democratic Ideas That Make Everything Better’.

“The article goes step-by-step on how the pandemic is being used by the Democrats to make sweeping changes in their policy platform in their effort to remake America. Basically consistent with their dangerous Democratic socialist views.

“They are planning to get rid of their so-called ‘center-left’ policies that they had initially envisioned. They are now courting what they call ‘left-wing allies’. They are adopting ideas like ‘single-payer health care’.

“They’re adopting ideas through labor unions, liberal think tanks, progressive institutions. They have taken over the Democrat party. And they are all beholden to Nancy Pelosi.

“Democrats are using the coronavirus so that their favored groups get a giveaway. That’s what it reads when you take a look at that $3 trillion bill that Nancy Pelosi dragged across the floor of the House last Friday night with members of her party kicking and screaming about voting for it.

“Some were kicking and screaming because the $3 trillion bill that started as a $1.5 trillion bill didn’t get big enough, didn’t include enough of their far left socialist agenda.

“This is not a solution for the crisis facing America. It is not a solution for the crisis that we’re facing with the coronavirus. It’s not a solution for the crisis of a shutdown economy, shutdown by the government in an effort to protect ourselves from the disease.

“What we see here is a partisan, political playbook. It is the Democrats’ agenda for the 2020 election.

“The efforts to get the coronavirus behind us and get our communities and our country open, must be targeted, must be temporary and must be tailored to the needs of our communities at this critical time in our nation’s history.

“Ultimately, it is time now for America to open swiftly and smartly and safely.”

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