WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Democrats continue to celebrate the passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told ABC News that the American Rescue Plan will help get more vaccines out and help deal with child poverty.
“That makes a tremendous difference in our goal to crush the virus and save the lives and livelihoods of the American people,” Pelosi said.
“The White House never reached out seriously to republicans. We had no input into actually what transpired,” Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said on Fox News Sunday. He said Republicans are worried about the side effects of this COVID relief deal. “Additional stimulus through this package is estimated by some liberal economists, it may ignite inflation.”
Democrats are confident this bill will lead to progress for the country and have now set their sights on working on a bipartisan infrastructure bill. “This is about broadband. It’s about water systems. It’s about mass transit. It’s about good paying jobs all over the country. It’s also about schools and housing and the rest,” Pelosi said.
Wyoming Republican Senator John Barasso tells ABC that he wants to work with Democrats on this, but isn’t sure if it will be truly bipartisan. “They ignored what we had done in a bipartisan way. If they would take the model that we came up within the committee in the senate, for highway and transportation, I think that’s a very good start,” Barasso said.
Republicans also worry about a push towards green energy from democrats and the President.
