Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona joined President Donald Trump in denouncing the $2.3 trillion combined general spending and coronavirus-stimulus package, calling it “typical of the swamp,” but he didn’t go along with the president's call to increase payments to individuals to $2,000 each.
Biggs, 62, a Republican who easily won a third term in November to represent Arizona’s 5th Congressional District east of Phoenix and is the House Freedom Caucus chairman, did not vote for it to get it to Trump’s desk, and said on Newsmax TV on Wednesday that he would not vote to override a veto.
“This is a disastrous bill,” Biggs said on “The Chris Salcedo Show.” “It’s typical of the swamp both from a process point of view and a substance point of view. The fact that they’re laying down almost 6,000 pages and saying, 'You know, you're going to have six hours to read this, digest it, and it's technical language, you have to cross-reference other statutes to understand what's in there,' that is absolutely malpractice to vote for it, in my opinion.
“From the substance side, there is so much not to like. We called it a COVID-relief package, but it is the whole spending package. And this is a bill that is going to spend probably the most in the history of this country and the world.”
The bill, which passed both houses of Congress on Monday, includes $892 in money ostensibly targeted to mitigate impacts of the restrictions imposed by various governmental entities to slow the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, such as $600 in payments to individuals that qualify under an annual income threshold.
Trump recorded a video with his objections to the bill, which was combined with a general spending bill that included various items, including foreign aid — of which $10 million was allocated for "gender programs" in Pakistan.
He encouraged Congress to eliminate what he called wasteful spending and increase the individual payments to $2,000, which Biggs disagreed with.
“We don’t have that money,” Biggs said. “That’s going to come from the future generation. The best way to get stimulus, in my opinion, is to get the economy open, let businesses get back to work, let Americans be Americans, make choices, take risks, and guess what? Within a very short period of time, you’re going to see the economy roar back and people survive this thing, and not just survive it, but do better than ever before.
“But when we throw $4,000 [per couple], why not say 'let's do $1 million'? Let's make everybody a millionaire.”
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