Kevin McCarthy: Dems using COVID-19 to enforce socialism
'They are using Covid as an opportunity to restructure government,' says Kevin McCarthy discussing the new $3 trillion stimulus bill passed by Democrats
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on “Fox & Friends” on Monday that “it’s really sickening that the Democrats are using this opportunity [the coronavirus pandemic] to enforce their socialism.”
McCarthy made the comment reacting to the $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill the House of Representatives passed on Friday, the most expensive legislation approved by that body in history, that Democrats hailed as the unprecedented response needed to deal with the pandemic and its economic fallout.
The 1,815-page package 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.
“No, I'm not crazy about it. Democrats are not crazy about it,” McCarthy said on Monday referring to the legislation. “Democrats talked about this bill going nowhere.”
He went on to say that the bill that was passed on Friday is “about pot, it’s about prisoners, it’s about politicizing election law, prioritizing illegal immigrants and pensions.”
“These are all things that are socialist wish lists that they've been trying to pass long before COVID ever came to this land and that's exactly what they are trying to do knowing that it will not go anywhere,” McCarthy said.
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He added that some Democrats are using the coronavirus crisis as “an opportunity to restructure government.”
McCarthy pointed out that even former Vice President Joe Biden and House Majority Whip James Clyburn think that way too.
On a conference call featuring more than 200 members of the House Democratic caucus in March, where a sweeping wish list of provisions in a stimulus package was laid out, The Hill reported, citing a source on the call, that Clyburn told lawmakers, “This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.”
“We have an opportunity to do so many things now to change some of the structural things that are wrong, some of the structural things we couldn’t get anyone’s attention on,” Biden reportedly told CNN last month, according to Vox.
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McCarthy noted on Monday that “it goes beyond AOC [New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], it’s now throughout the entire Democrat socialist base of what they want to utilize this opportunity to [sic], because when we wanted to help small businesses with their loans, Nancy Pelosi went to the freezer to stop it.”
McCarthy was referencing criticism of Pelosi showcasing her ice cream in her freezer while appearing on a late-night talk show during a stalemate over the coronavirus aid legislation.
Fox News’ Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.
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