Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) issued the following statement after Senate Democrats voted against a targeted legislative package to help Americans who are hurting as a result of the coronavirus pandemic:
“Today, Democrats made clear that their political games are more important than delivering relief to families across the country who are out of work, unable to send their children to school, and worried about how they’re going to make ends meet. Maximizing economic pain for millions for political gain is cynical and wrong, and the consequences are dire. We have seen suicide attempts and other diseases of despair increase. 28 million Americans remain out of work, and our GDP has shrunk by 9.5 percent.
“This legislation takes meaningful steps to address these challenges, including $105 billion in new education funding to expand school choice and provide all families with the flexibility they need to ensure their children can continue learning and growing. Far too many schools across the country remain closed as a result of Democrats’ mandated shutdowns, and the educations of millions of students have been put on hold. Our kids are not learning the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic, and it’s a tragedy every day and every week that they’re being left behind.
“And unlike Democrats’ more than $3 trillion HEROES Act – which was riddled with radical Leftist schemes to permanently grow the federal government’s power – today’s package did not simply shovel more cash out the door while keeping our economy shut down. It included an estimated $350 billion in additional offsets, limiting our spending and our debt, which has grown by 16 percent since the pandemic started.
“Enough with Democrats’ partisan games. There is important work that needs to be done to get our country on the path to recovery. We need to get people safely back to work and safely back to school, help small businesses re-hire their employees and create jobs, and expand COVID-19 testing and the search for treatments. I introduced comprehensive legislation this week that would do just that. Instead of political posturing, Democrats need to step up and do their jobs. The American people deserve nothing less.”
“This legislation takes meaningful steps to address these challenges, including $105 billion in new education funding to expand school choice and provide all families with the flexibility they need to ensure their children can continue learning and growing. Far too many schools across the country remain closed as a result of Democrats’ mandated shutdowns, and the educations of millions of students have been put on hold. Our kids are not learning the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic, and it’s a tragedy every day and every week that they’re being left behind.
“And unlike Democrats’ more than $3 trillion HEROES Act – which was riddled with radical Leftist schemes to permanently grow the federal government’s power – today’s package did not simply shovel more cash out the door while keeping our economy shut down. It included an estimated $350 billion in additional offsets, limiting our spending and our debt, which has grown by 16 percent since the pandemic started.
“Enough with Democrats’ partisan games. There is important work that needs to be done to get our country on the path to recovery. We need to get people safely back to work and safely back to school, help small businesses re-hire their employees and create jobs, and expand COVID-19 testing and the search for treatments. I introduced comprehensive legislation this week that would do just that. Instead of political posturing, Democrats need to step up and do their jobs. The American people deserve nothing less.”
BACKGROUND:
The targeted legislative package includes several proposals championed by Sen. Cruz to expand school choice, including:
- Sen. Cruz’s proposal to establish education tax credits.
- Sen. Cruz’s proposal to expand 529 savings accounts.
- Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Cruz’s proposal to authorize one-time emergency appropriations funding for scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs) in each state for the remainder of the year.
ON SENATOR CRUZ’S RECOVERY ACT:
Earlier this week, Sen. Cruz introduced the Reinvigorating the Economy, Creating Opportunity for every Vocation, Employer, Retiree & Youth (RECOVERY) Act, comprehensive legislation that would help small businesses re-hire their employees and create jobs, help kids get back to school safely, allow Americans to catch-up on their retirement savings, and help find cures for COVID-19 while increasing testing.
