Democrats have leaned on reopening the country in a way that has made the topic "highly politicized," and now they are pushing forward with a $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill that likely will be dead on arrival when it reaches the Senate, Sen. Mike Braun said Wednesday.
"This is the same thing they tried to do on Sunday before we left with all the extraneous stuff to get their kind of wish list out there," the Indiana Republican said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "That's not going to go anywhere. It's really irresponsible to do it."
Meanwhile, the nation must be focused at this time with a "smart restart" or face bankruptcies and many other issues that have come from a one-size-fits-all shutdown, Braun said.
He added that the House Democrats' proposed bill is part of the "dysfunction" that's taking place surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. "When I came here, hundreds of billions used to be the big denomination," said Braun. "Now it's trillions. We have structural trillion-dollar deficits. We added $3 trillion, and $3.5 trillion, now they're asking for this. This is completely out of line, and yes, it's just a bargaining ploy."
Braun added that many Republicans are true fiscal conservatives and will have trouble "paying any price for something we should do anyway, protecting businesses that are trying to get this economy going."
He noted that he's on the Budget Committee, and is concerned that a budget hasn't been passed that has been adhered to for 20 years, and the Democrats' push to pass such a bill during a crisis period doesn't surprise him.