U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) said he felt disgusted consenting to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) when she demanded certain pork barrel projects on the coronavirus relief bill.
Green said this during a Tele-Town hall phone call with constituents Friday. He added that he and other congressional Republicans stripped a lot of pork out of the bill. But, to get it passed, Republicans still had to vote for $25 million for the Kennedy Center.
As reported, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act last week.
Green said on Friday’s call that he and other congressional Republicans had to concede additional things to Pelosi that, in the long run, hurt the country.
“We were trying to get money in there to buy fuel petroleum at our current super low prices to put in our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Well, Pelosi would not allow that to be in there. She would not support passage of the bill if they didn’t have the Green New Deal stuff in there. So, in order to get Green New Deal stuff, which we feel would be very harmful to the economy, we had to take off the purchase of it in order to get something passed so our businesses and our families could get the help they need during this crisis,” Green said.
“It was a very frustrating thing. They often call this type of legislating ‘sausage making,’ and it’s this debate. They sort of held us hostage on some things, and we wound up sending $25 million to the Kennedy Center in order to get checks to people. I hated it. It made me sick to my stomach, but I didn’t think we could wait another day or two. But we were able to get a ton of stuff she [Pelosi] wanted in that 1,400 page bill out of there.”
Earlier in the day, Green appeared on The Jeff Poor Show, where he talked more about the historic spending bill.
“There were things about this bill that were very frustrating,” Green said.
“What we will undoubtedly find out is that the way the language of the bill was structured, some people got left out.
And that’s the reason why government should never do this. But in this very unique circumstance, we had to. We’re talking about a complete stop the US economy, so it’s unprecedented. World War II didn’t have this much of an impact on the economy.
Obviously it’s going to have its challenges we’ll have to address” Green said.
As The Tennessee Star reported in February, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) released the Green New Deal resolution that’s a central part of the Democratic agenda.
The “Green New Deal” resolution calls for “10-year national mobilizations” towards a series of goals aimed at fighting global warming.
As The Star reported this week, the $2 trillion federal stimulus bill, otherwise known as The CARES Act.
Among other things, under CARES, all U.S. residents with adjusted gross incomes up to $75,000 — or $150,000 for married couples — will get a one-time $1,200, or $2,400 for couples, payment. They are also eligible for an additional $500 per child. Payments will start phasing out for earners above those income thresholds, and will not go to single filers earning more than $99,000, head-of-household filers with more than $146,500, or more than $198,000 for joint filers with no children.
Listen to Green on The Jeff Poor Show:
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
