Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., told Newsmax TV on Wednesday that the coronavirus relief bill released by Democrats in the House is “bad news” because the “bad things totally outweigh any good things” in it.
Lesko told “National Report” that she is a “no vote” on the bill, known as the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, or HEROES Act. The 1,800 page bill includes funding for state and local governments, hazard pay for healthcare workers on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak, student loan debt forgiveness and boosts to Medicare and Medicaid.
“It's bad news,” Lesko said, adding that “there may be some good things in the bill, but the bad things totally outweigh any good things in this bill. For instance, I call it the ‘no incentive to go back to work bill,’ because what the Democrats want to do is extend an extra six hundred dollars a week that's paid in unemployment over top of what the state pays for another ... nine months to the end of January next year. They also want to mandate on all businesses, whether they're one employee or a thousand employees, another year of mandated family medical leave. They want to mandate all companies continue health insurance for their employees, and they want to increase the food stamp programs ... and then not count the six hundred dollars that people are getting each and every week in unemployment.”
The congresswoman said, “So, what's going to happen is everybody's just gonna want to stay home. Why would they want to go back to work? We're already hearing back from business owners. I talked to business owners yesterday. They said they were ready to open back up again, they call their employees saying, ‘hey, come back to work,’ and they're like, you know, ‘why should we? We're getting paid more being unemployed than we were working for you.’ So, this is a big problem.”
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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