Six Republican Senators could not bring themselves to vote for the pork contained in the recent stimulus bill.
According to Fox News:
After months of stalled negotiations, Congress finally passed a new $900 billion coronavirus relief package late Monday night with overwhelming support in the Senate, but six Republicans stood firmly against it.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., all stood firmly against the bill, which had been bundled with a $1.4 trillion spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. Their criticisms largely focused on the size of the legislation, both in terms of the dollar amount and the bill’s page count.
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Cruz and Lee also criticized the process of the legislation, with lawmakers having just hours to read several thousand pages. After Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the concept of having to vote on a large bill without having time to examine it, Cruz agreed with the left-wing Democrat.
“It’s ABSURD to have a $2.5 trillion spending bill negotiated in secret and then—hours later—demand an up-or-down vote on a bill nobody has had time to read,” Cruz tweeted.
.@AOC is right.
It’s ABSURD to have a $2.5 trillion spending bill negotiated in secret and then—hours later—demand an up-or-down vote on a bill nobody has had time to read. #CongressIsBroken https://t.co/EQp8BfRBHj
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 21, 2020
2/4 Here’s the really sad thing: we’re being told that there will be no opportunity to amend or improve it. As a result, nearly every member of Congress — House and Senate, Democrat or Republican — will have been excluded from the process of developing this bill,
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) December 21, 2020
4/4 It won’t come to an end until no longer works for those empowered by it. That can happen, but only when most members of both houses and both political parties stop voting for bills they haven’t read—and, by design, cannot read until after it’s too late.
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) December 21, 2020
Washington continues to operate unchecked, but these 6 senators were not going to stand for it.