The most pressing issue with resolving the impasse over passing another coronavirus bill is deciding what to do about unemployment benefits, and senators should put an unemployment bill on the floor, Sen. John Kennedy said Thursday.
"What we have here is an impressively large cluster event, and as bad as it looks from the outside, you ought to see it from the inside," the Louisiana Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" about the continued arguments over the coronavirus package. "It is a true goat rodeo."
However, as "no fair-minded person wants a system that would pay someone more not to work than to work," continuing the extra $600 a week payments on unemployment benefits granted earlier this year "will not fly."
Many Americans can't return to their jobs, Kennedy said, because the government shut down the economy, so Senate leaders need to put out an unemployment bill.
"Let senators be senators," he said. "Let us offer a debate and offer amendments, and I will bet you that if you do that in a matter of days, we can come to some sort of agreement. Will everybody be happy? No, that's why God made compromises."
However, he said he does not support the present bill, as it has too much spending on items not related to the coronavirus.
"Now is not the time to renovate the West Wing of the White House," the senator said. "This is supposed to be a coronavirus bill."
Kennedy also spoke out about social media platforms, accusing their CEOs of "lying" when they deny discriminating against conservative points of view.
"One option is to consider breaking them up and another option is to ask the FTC [Federal Trade Commission] to do its job and make them stop discriminating one way or the other."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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