(CNS News) – Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the two COVID relief bills now under consideration in Congress cost too much because "we don't have any money," no federal "savings account," and if the costlier bill becomes law, “We’re going to have a $5 trillion deficit in one year and I think that that’s outlandish.”
At the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, CNS News asked Sen. Paul, “Nancy Pelosi says the $1 trillion HEALS Act proposed by Senate Republicans isn’t enough. She wants the HEROES Act which is $3.4 trillion. How many trillions should Congress spend on COVID relief?”
“Well, we don’t have any money,” Sen. Paul said. “We don’t have a rainy-day account or a savings account, so even the [one] trillion the Republicans are proposing is way too much because it has to be borrowed.”
“We’ve already borrowed $3 trillion in addition to the $1 trillion we had,” Sen. Paul continued. “We’re going to have a $5-trillion deficit in one year and I think that that’s outlandish.”
“So no, I think Nancy Pelosi wanting to spend so much money endangers the country, endangers the value of the currency,” he said.
As of June 30, the deficit for the first nine months of fiscal year 2020 was $2,744,303,000,000, according to the Treasury Department. If the Democrats’ $3.4 trillion HEROES Act becomes law, it will tack on another $1.719 trillion to the deficit this fiscal year (which ends on Sept. 30), reported the Congressional Budget Office.
If you add the existing $2.74 trillion deficit to the $1.79 trillion in projected deficit, it will make the deficit $4,463,303,000,000 at the end of this fiscal year (Sept. 30). However, Congress is projected to deficit-spend another $677 billion between July and September, so the deficit could hit over $5 trillion, as Sen. Paul told CNS News.
The Republicans’ $1 trillion HEALS Act, which stands for Health, Economic Assistance, Liability protection and Schools, was proposed on Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said of the legislation, “So I hope this strong proposal will occasion a real response. Not partisan cheap shots. Not the predictable, tired, old rhetoric as though these were ordinary times and the nation could afford ordinary politics.”
McConnell also urged Democrats to discard their $3.4 trillion HEROES Act, calling it a “socialist manifesto.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said of the HEALS Act, “We’ve waited months for a Republican bill and still the Republican response is totally inadequate.”
The HEALS Act would provide $1 trillion worth of funding and includes a second round of stimulus checks and liability for health care workers, churches and schools.
The bill includes $105 billion for schools, $30 billion for the military, $20 billion for a COVID vaccine and other therapies, $20 billion for farmers and $16 billion for COVID testing.