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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) on Friday lambasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), For giving the Senate a Thanksgiving break without reaching a deal on new COVID-19 relief.
Ocasio-Cortez made the remarks during a House hearing on Friday. She said McConnell was “abandoning our people” by allowing the Senate to take a recess on Wednesday, a day earlier than expected, as Americans face “the extraordinary health and economic hardship of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Just a day or two ago, Senate Majority Leader Senator McConnell decided to break up the Senate,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And he broke the Senate because there are thousands of people in Texas lined up for the queues. He broke the Senate when hospitals no longer have beds to house the sick. He broke the Senate. and removed the Senate, while 30 million Americans are on the brink of expulsion. “
“He sacked the Senate when every day, when we go back to our communities, people ask us, ‘Where is the help going? Will there be a second stimulus check? Are we going to get the resources that we need? ”She continued.“ The Senate prides itself on being one of the most legislative bodies. They abandoned them. “
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Ocasio-Cortez added that the CARES law, which was passed in March, had “lifted more than 18 million people in the United States out of monthly poverty in April alone.” She said that 14 million of them returned to poverty after the expiration of certain benefits prescribed by the bill.
Ocasio-Cortez insisted that a “majority of people in the United States are not very confident in their ability to eat over the next four weeks,” while McConnell showed “unacceptable leadership” by allowing Senators to take a break for Thanksgiving despite many their constituents struggling to feed themselves and their families during the holidays.
“While we are discussing the negotiations and while we are discussing the points, people are hungry,” she said. “We dismiss their needs as ‘blue state needs’, or as bailouts depending on which party you voted for. Hungry has no party. Illness has no party.”
Efforts by Democrats and Republicans to agree to and pass a follow-up to the CARES law have repeatedly failed over the past eight months. Both sides accused the other of hampering its own efforts. One sticking point has been unemployment benefits, with Republicans insisting that benefits pay at a lower rate than what was originally provided for in the previous bill.
About half of the roughly 20 million people who are currently receiving unemployment benefits in the United States could lose their lifeline due to two federal programs expiring on Dec. 26, according to the Associated Press.
There had been more than 11.7 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States as of Friday, with a record 187,833 new cases added on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 2,000 deaths have been added to a total that has exceeded 252,000 since the start of the pandemic.
On Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez suggested that the government “pay people to stay at home” in an attempt to “bring the virus under control,” which sparked heated discussions on Twitter with prominent Republicans, including the ‘Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Senator Kelly Loeffler R-Ga.).
Newsweek contacted McConnell’s office for comment.
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