House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is directing her frustration at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans for blocking a vote on $2,000 stimulus checks.
“It’s amazing to see the patience that some people have with other people’s suffering. These Republicans in the Senate seem to have an endless tolerance for other people’s sadness,” Pelosi said during her press conference on Wednesday.
She added, “We urge Mitch McConnell to stop his obstruction and to bring that legislation to the floor of the Senate and we urge Republicans in the Senate to encourage him to do so.”
Pelosi accused Republicans of being “in denial of the hardship that the American people are experiencing now.”
Check out her comments below:
Pelosi says McConnell and GOP senators blocking a vote on $2,000 stimulus checks "are in denial of the hardship that the American people are experiencing now"
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 30, 2020
"These Republicans in the Senate seem to have an endless tolerance for other people's sadness" https://t.co/wbPo94M5bA pic.twitter.com/Mm9H8rBnKx
McConnell blocked an immediate vote on the $2,000 checks on Tuesday, as IJR previously reported.
He later introduced a measure to include the direct payments along with a plan to limit protections for social media companies and a provision to investigate election security.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump suggested Republicans have a “death wish” if they choose not to approve the $2,000 checks, as IJR previously reported.
“$2000 ASAP!” Trump reiterated on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
$2000 ASAP!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2020
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) made it clear he does not support Trump’s call for larger checks.
“Congress should continue helping workers who’ve lost their jobs. But blindly borrowing more than $600 billion so we can send $2,000 checks to millions of people who haven’t lost any income is terrible policy,” Toomey wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
He went on, “I won’t consent to a vote on that.”
Other Republicans have expressed their support for the increase, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told Republicans who oppose the president’s idea to spare him the “fake righteous indignation about the deficit all of a sudden.”