A number of lawmakers have criticized congress during the COVID-19 pandemic because it has not been able to come to an agreement regarding a second stimulus package that would greatly help the American people during this time.
As Congress prepares today to consider additional coronavirus relief measures, Florida Senator Rick Scott (R) released a statement, arguing that lawmakers should reject bailouts for what he says are liberal states that want to use taxpayer money that is intended for coronavirus response.
Scott has spoken about this issue for the better part of this year, saying that money should not be used to backfill what he calls are poorly-managed budgets and pension plans.
In a statement, Senator Scott admitted his disappointment “that a proposal from some of my colleagues today apparently includes provisions that spends hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to bail out wasteful states when we don’t even know how much is still unspent from the previous coronavirus response packages that Congress passed earlier this year.”
Scott stated that he has “reached out to every Governor to learn exactly how this money has been spent, and most have refused to give us any information,” adding that “it’s time we get serious about where taxpayer money is going,” asserting that lawmakers must “reject unnecessary state bailouts.”
The former Florida Governor also turned his attention to Governors in blue states, saying that “the liberal Governors who refuse to open their states or spend taxpayer money wisely are seeing high numbers of unemployment.” However, he posited that what “they don’t want you to know is that state and local governments’ projected revenue shortfalls due to the coronavirus have not come to fruition – which is a great thing.”
He concluded that because “revenue collections in many states exceeded their initial projections… most states will be in a strong position to get through this pandemic without more federal aid.”
