His. Mitt Romney
Willard (Mitt) Mitt Romney If GOP blocks Biden’s COVID rescue plan, poor American workers will suffer Hill’s report 12:30: Biden tests GOP bargaining skills at relief meeting of today’s COVID GOP senators present 8 billion coronavirus proposal ahead of Biden meeting MORE (R-Utah) said it’s disappointing for Republicans to criticize Democrats for their plans to spend trillions of dollars after the Republican Party remained largely reassured about its deficit concerns President Trump
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“When we had a Republican president, the House and the Senate, we continued to spend heavily and add nearly a trillion dollars a year to national debt. Now do we say it’s outrageous to add so much to debt? They say we did the same thing when we were in the lead. It shows you need to be consistent in your arguments, “Romney said on the Utah Politics podcast.
The remarks come as the Republican Party raises the alarm over a $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package pushed by President Biden. Many Republicans, including Romney, say the price is too high, noting that Congress spent $ 900 billion fighting the pandemic late last year.
Democrats have said, however, that these concerns fly in the face of a wave of spending during the Trump administration, including 2017 and 2018, when Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress.
Democrats are taking the first step toward adopting the Biden coronavirus package through budget reconciliation, a process that would consume time on the floor in the Senate but allow for a simple majority instead of the typical 60 votes needed to pass the legislation.
Republicans have said the process, which would effectively sideline the 50 Republican Party senators, would not comply with calls for Biden unity. But Romney noted that Republicans used the procedure to pass large tax cuts in 2017.
“There’s no doubt that if you start doing things that break precedents or break tradition, the other party will do it when they’re in the lead,” he said. “When we launched a tax program that did not require any vote from Democrats through reconciliation, we have a hard time explaining why we are not happy with what they would do at this stage.”
Romney is among a group of 10 GOP senators advocating a smaller $ 618 billion coronavirus proposal. Biden, in a call with Senate Democrats, on Tuesday urged senators to “grow up” and move quickly to pass a COVID-19 relief bill. Biden noted that he was open to some of the Republican senators’ ideas, but told lawmakers that his clear preference was for Congress to approve a $ 1.9 trillion package.