[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S836-S837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday, I discussed the K-12 crisis 
facing American families. The science shows that in-person schooling 
can easily be made safe. Private and religious schools and schools in 
Europe have been open for months.
  But Washington Democrats have apparently bought into Big Labor's myth 
that schools cannot reopen without even more Federal funding, even 
though their own plan would only spend about 5 percent--5 percent of 
the money this fiscal year.
  This is just one illustration of how Democrats started with 
preconceived ideological goals and actually worked backward, instead of 
starting with the actual needs of American families.
  Let's take a look at the economy. When we had to stall our economy to 
protect our health system, the Senate wrote the bipartisan CARES Act, 
the biggest rescue package in American history. It spent $2.2 trillion 
to save the healthcare system, find vaccines, and support families. We 
refilled many of those programs with another $920 billion just last 
December.
  Today, we stand at a very different kind of crossroads. More than 13 
percent of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine. 
Manufacturers expect vaccine supply to keep ramping up dramatically in 
the weeks ahead.
  The trillions we spent on rescue policies in 2020 had the economy 
prepped to come roaring back as health conditions keep improving.
  Unemployment today is already lower than where, at one point in this 
crisis, the Federal Reserve predicted it would be by the end of the 
year. In some blue-collar sectors, both total employment and job 
openings are already higher than they were before the pandemic. Retail 
sales just smashed experts' predictions. Many manufacturers can't keep 
pace with demand.
  Remarkably, even as economic output obviously shrunk in 2020, overall 
household personal income and personal savings actually went up. That 
is because of the relief Congress delivered.
  There is no question that some American families are still 
struggling. Nobody thinks our health or economic fight is finished yet, 
but on a broad national scale, households are sitting on an historic 
pile of pent-up cash, waiting for the economy to reopen.

  The former head of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers 
says:

       We have no historic parallel with anything like this level 
     of excess saving.

  He says we have never seen this much ``dry powder.''
  Even mainstream liberal economists agree that our country does not 
need another massive fire hose of borrowed money. This is not April of 
2020. This is a different chapter. Washington should focus on practical 
policies to finish this fight: accelerate vaccinations; get kids back 
in school; help the families and small businesses that actually need 
help; and get laid-off Americans matched with job openings ASAP.
  Unfortunately, the Democrats' partisan proposal would not just be 
wasteful but, in certain ways, actually counterproductive. It would 
have Washington go out of its way to discourage hiring, discourage a 
return to work, and actually keep things shut down longer.
  Take the minimum wage policy. The CBO says this abrupt, one-size-
fits-all change would kill about 1\1/2\ times as many jobs as the 
number of workers it would lift out of poverty.
  Or take their proposal for another long-term extension of a big 
Federal supplement to unemployment benefits. Even in the middle of last 
year, it was questionable policy to pay people more to stay home than 
essential workers were earning while actually on the job. Now another 
long-term, flat supplement would make even less sense.
  Here is how one leading economist puts it:

       In an expanding economy that is putting the virus behind 
     it, paying people more in unemployment than they could 
     receive from working is an act of substantial economic self-
     harm. It would keep workers on the sidelines, stop the 
     unemployment rate from falling as rapidly as it otherwise 
     would, and slow the overall recovery.

  Then there is the $350 billion bailout for State and local 
governments, many of whom have already seen revenues and receipts 
rebound. It is several multiples of any sober estimate of the actual 
need. Apparently, even Senators on the Democratic side are trying to 
pare back this absurd request--just one more way this proposal seems to 
be stuck back in April of last year.
  I haven't even talked about the hundreds of millions of dollars for 
pet projects without a shred of relevance to the pandemic or the 
recovery--money for ``climate justice,'' transportation earmarks for 
the Democratic leader's home State--all kinds of liberal wish list 
items that would do nothing to help American families put COVID behind 
them. Just about 1 percent of the money is for vaccines, so either the 
new administration has completely taken their eye off the ball or they 
were not actually starting from scratch at all, like they claimed. Only 
5 percent of the education funding would even go out this fiscal year. 
Only 5 percent of the education funding would go out this fiscal year.
  Our own Senate Democratic colleagues are reportedly admitting parts

[[Page S837]]

of this are poorly targeted. Liberal economists and the Washington 
Post's editorial board are saying Americans deserve more bang for their 
buck--a predictably chilly reception for a partisan bill that started 
with an outdated, ideological wish list instead of the current needs of 
American families.