DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla released the following statement after President Trump announced he was pulling out of coronavirus relief negotiations until after Election Day and has asked Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to “focus full time” on ramming through his Supreme Court nominee who is hostile to the ACA – which McConnell fully supports.
“After wasting months refusing to extend relief, Trump and McConnell have slammed the door in the faces of the millions of Americans who have been desperately pleading for help to get through this crisis that is getting worse because of Washington Republicans’ colossal failure of leadership. Despite the overwhelming majority of their constituents who want the Senate to prioritize a new relief package, Republicans are instead plowing ahead with their power grab to tilt the Supreme Court in favor of their party’s toxic lawsuit to take away health care and end protections for people with pre-existing conditions in the middle of a pandemic.”
After letting emergency unemployment aid expire in July, Senate Republicans took a month-long vacation and left millions of Americans without relief — only to return to Washington and fail to provide relief. Senate Republicans’ inadequate response to this public health crisis has been to push a stunt bill that even President Trump said didn’t meet Americans’ needs. Now because of Senate Republicans’ lack of action “tens of millions of Americans are dealing with uncertain futures.”
A recent poll shows “an overwhelming majority of voters believe the Senate should prioritize coronavirus relief” over confirming a Supreme Court nominee – but instead, Republicans are furiously rushing to fill a lifetime seat with a nominee hostile to the Affordable Care Act just in time for the high court to hear their party’s challenge that would overturn the entire law one week after Election Day. Vulnerable GOP incumbents were reportedly “beginning to fret” about facing their constituents in the final weeks of election season having failed to secure additional pandemic relief, cognizant that they’re the targets of the “anger” of millions of Americans for failing the country during this public health and economic crisis.
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