A.G. Gancarski
United States Senator Marco Rubio told the Florida Chamber of Commerce Tuesday morning about difficulties green-lighting more federal relief for COVID-19 economic disruptions.
The Senator said Democratic leadership are “dug in” in their position of wanting more relief than Republicans, saying he doesn’t know if the “rank and file” agree with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer.
The Senator professed frustration with the process, saying Democratic leadership won’t come to the table.
“The areas of dispute, beyond PPP and testing where there is consensus, is liability protection,” Rubio said, as well as “more money for state and local governments,” Rubio said.
Republicans seek omnibus protections for businesses from virus-related lawsuits, but lack Democratic enthusiasm for more money for subsidiary governments.
While there’s consensus that more unemployment help is needed, a “line of dispute” is in the amount of compensation claimants would get from the federal government.
Rubio suggested a compromise could be reached where Republicans could vote for “most” of what Democrats want, even as he acknowledged that colleague Rick Scott is one opponent of more money for subsidiary governments.
“Every time you give on a Democratic proposal, you may gain Democrats but lose Republicans,” Rubio said. “We just don’t have enough votes on the Republican side to pass any of these right now.”
One area of agreement that does exist: an additional round of PPP money tied to COVID-19 driven losses envisioned for qualifying businesses.
But the difficulty is finding an omnibus package without dealbreakers for one side or the other.
Chamber members, meanwhile, are raring to continue opening the economy.
“I don’t know when we’ll be able to go into full Phase 3, but the needle’s pointing in the right direction,” said Chamber President Mark Wilson, who thanked members for “not letting up” on pressing for reopening.
4 comments
TED KRUZE
September 1, 2020 at 12:15 pm
Rubio is a schmuck! The Republican party is NOT the “party of the people” – and it never has been. The Republican party is the party of the special interests and the fatcats. Period. So, to think the Republicans in the Senate will approve any further pandemic or other benefits “for the people” is just a pipe dream.
James Robert Miles
September 1, 2020 at 2:38 pm
Rubio, being the little weazel that he is thinks just like Trump. Although elected by the people of Florida to represent ALL OF THE PEOPLE OF FLORIDA, not just Republicans actually only represents Republicans and nobody else! For example, he does NOT respond to constituents who he does not agree with. If you are not the same as Rubio politically, he will never answer correspondence from you. He is another GOP moron who doesn’t understand what representative government is all about. He appears to be trying to turn the U.S. into something similar to Cuba for which he will NOT succeed! Instead the U.S. will become more like Russia due to Trump’s love affair with Putin. In Trump’s affair, I am sure Trump is the ‘bottom’ in the screwing that is going on. The U.S. is getting screwed everyday by Russia and Rubio ;ile the rest of the GOP Senate are the enablers! We need to take back America but it will NEVER happen with Trump!
Sonja Fitch
September 1, 2020 at 4:53 pm
Stfu Marco. Looooooser!
PeterH
September 2, 2020 at 9:42 am
Republicans realize that they are going to lose all three branches of government in the November elections. Through their tax breaks alone they have added four trillion to the national debt BEFORE THE ONSET OF COVID-19! With Covid the debt has increased dramatically.
If the GOP assembles a needed financial bailout of State’s debt …… the supposed ‘fiscally responsible’ Republican Party will be on track for $12 trillion added to the national debt in 4 years.
Reasonable leadership would assume the debt incurred because of their incompetence ….. but that would mean the GOP were honest brokers.
Republicans will once again leave their financial mess for Democrats to fix. They are following the 2009 playbook …… leaving the financial burden for their mistakes to the incoming administration. Meanwhile State’s suffer.
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