March 22, 2020

Duckworth: McConnell’s COVID-19 “Proposal” Only Helps Billionaires During National Crisis, Does Nothing for Working Families

 

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) issued the following statement today regarding the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act:

“Struggling workers need help today and they deserve to have their jobs protected tomorrow. First responders and hospitals need personal protective equipment and resources immediately. Our nation faces a public health and economic crisis on a scale few if any of us have ever seen before. Instead of doing the right thing, Senate Republicans are pushing to give the Trump Administration a Mnuchin-controlled slush fund with virtually no oversight, and using the stock market and American lives as leverage.

“This one-sided proposal fails to provide enough resources to hospitals that are being slammed, it fails to protect first responders or ensure workplace safety and it fails to do anything to safeguard jobs for the millions of Americans who are suffering through no fault of their own. The only thing this legislation succeeds in protecting is corporations and CEOs by ensuring they can continue giving themselves raises and buying back stocks in exchange for this taxpayer-funded bailout. I’m astonished that Mitch McConnell would play with the health and well-being of both the American economy and the American people, and I simply cannot vote for it. Neither should anyone else.”