Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso claims that Vice President Joe Biden is using “fear tactics” to push Congress to pass a $35 billion stimulus package, which he said shows the “desperation” of the White House.
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“The vice president is attempting to use fear tactics on the American people and really, to me, shows a sign of desperation of the vice president and of this administration because they realize that their policies have failed the American people. They inherited a bad situation, and they have made it worse,” Barrasso said at a press conference on job creation Thursday on Capitol Hill.
“In many cities, the result has been, and it’s not unique, murder rates are up, robberies are up, rapes are up,” Biden said on Wednesday, arguing that Republicans should support giving funds to states for the hiring of public safety employees.
The White House predicted that the $821 billion stimulus package passed in 2009 would prevent unemployment from rising above 8 percent, but it is currently at 9.1 percent. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who appeared with Barrasso, argued that the new stimulus package — which is part of the President’s $447 billion jobs bill — is more of the same.
“Over the next 24 hours you’re going to find just one more chapter in this absurd political theater where the president offers a so-called jobs bill. OK, basically, it’s — to me, it’s ‘son of stimulus.’ It’s ‘stimulus 2.0,’” said Rubio. “If $800 billion of stimulus spending didn’t do anything to address unemployment, then why would $400 billion more of stimulus spending do anything about unemployment?”
The senators called for a vote in the Senate on a part of the president’s jobs bill that would abolish the 3 percent withholding tax on federal contractors.