Payne slams Pelosi, Newsom for using COVID-19 funds for illegal immigrants: 'It's mindboggling'
Charles Payne blasts Speaker Pelosi for reportedly pushing coronavirus relief funds to illegal immigrants while California slashes other essential services
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Fox Business Network anchor Charles Payne told “America’s Newsroom" Wednesday that California Gov. Gavin Newsom's request for federal money to help close the state's coronavirus-induced budget deficit is "beyond the pale."
“If you do take California, you’ve got Gavin Newsom coming up with a budget here recently and what it does is it slashes funding for schools, health spending, parks, childcare, and it is just beyond the pale [that] the governor is demanding $1 trillion from the federal government,” Payne said.
The "Making Money" host noted that the federal government has provided plenty of help to California, pointing out that $700 million has been sent to boost San Francisco's transit system. By contrast, Seattle received $160 million and Portland, Ore. received $184 million.
“The idea that taxpayers and other states should be paying for the profligate spending, these grandiose dreams, the sanctuary state status of California, it’s beyond the pale, it’s beyond entitlement and it’s just hard to believe that they are pushing for these kinds of things.”
Meanwhile, Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyo. described the $3 trillion coronavirus relief legislation passed by the House of Representatives last week as a “fantasyland bill” that helps illegal immigrants more than American citizens.
Barrasso told “America’s Newsroom” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is “actually making it easier for illegal immigrants to work in her $3 trillion bill, that fantasyland bill, than she is making it easier for the 36 million Americans out of work to get back on the job.”
“Those are the perverse incentives that she’s included in this liberal wish list,” he continued.
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The relief package includes protections for illegal immigrants who work in jobs declared “essential," which Republicans are blasting as an attempt at “amnesty.” It also expands direct payment eligibility to undocumented immigrants who pay taxes, which Barrasso said he disagrees with "100 percent."
The 1,815-page bill was drafted by Democrats alone and earned a veto threat from the White House and condemnation from the GOP as a “liberal wish list” that’s dead on arrival in the Senate.
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Payne said that by pushing her bill through the House, Pelosi is slowing the process of putting together a coronavirus relief package that may have a chance of becoming law.
“All she does is slow down what would inevitably be a tough process anyway to get the fourth phase of funding done," he said. "It is just not done in good faith."
Fox News' Talia Kaplan contributed to this report.
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