Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy blasted the “spending porn” contained in the recently passed coronavirus relief bill.
Appearing Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo,” Kennedy acknowledged the necessity of passing the bill in order to “get money directly” to people, hospitals and businesses in need, but said many of his constituents “are very upset at the spending porn on pet projects that was slipped into the bill.”
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“Well, you know, life is hard, but it’s harder when you’re stupid,” Kennedy said, responding to Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo’s question about specific items of excess spending in the bill. “And there’s an enormous amount of spending porn on pet projects that was put into this bill by some powerful members of Congress. They think the American people, I guess, are morons and won’t notice, but they did.”
“It’s why so many Americans think there’s no intelligent life in Washington, D.C.,” he continued. “It’s why Congress polls right up there with robocalls and sinkholes. This is what many Americans heard members of Congress say: ‘Oh my God, we could run out of ventilators. Oh my God, people could die. Quick, let’s give money to the Kennedy Center and the post office.'”
Kennedy said fiscal conservatives like himself “swallowed” the bill, because they “had to,” but said it was far from “a Lincoln moment.”
“But a pox on the House and houses of all of those members of Congress who took advantage of this disaster, this tragedy, to take care of their pet projects,” he said.
When asked for a few specifics, Kennedy said, “There’s a provision to speed up FDA review of sunscreen products. There’s money in this bill for the National Endowment for the Arts, for the National Endowment for Humanities. There’s money in this bill for housing. There’s money in this bill for NASA. There’s money in this bill for a $500,000 water project in Utah … There’s money in here for the Smithsonian.” (RELATED: ‘They Can’t Even Change Their Goddamn Behavior’: Greg Gutfeld Goes Off On Lawmakers For Stalled Coronavirus Bill)
The Louisiana senator said the waste “was started by Speaker Pelosi with her left-of-Lenin bridge-to-nowhere projects,” but added that she’s likely “not the only one.”
“I think some other people in powerful positions piled on, and I don’t like it,” he said. “And it’s not fair to the American people. Now look, I’m tight as a tick. I squeak when I walk, I’m so cheap with taxpayer money. But I said, look, this is necessary. I swallowed it and said, we’re going to spend $2 trillion-plus because the American people need it. But when I pick up this bill, and see this kind of spending porn where people are taking advantage of a catastrophe for the American people, it pisses me off.”