- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clapped back at a GOP congressman who opposed $2,000 stimulus checks, parodying his reason for opposing them.
- The House passed a bill boosting the stimulus check totals on Monday. The vote now moves to the Senate, where passage is unlikely.
- GOP Rep. Kevin Brady said he opposed $2,000 stimulus checks because the money would go toward paying off credit card debt and “new purchases online at Wal-Mart, Best Buy or Amazon.”
- The congresswoman from New York replied to Brady’s statement with a parodied rephrasing of his reasoning.
- “‘I don’t support $2k survival checks because it might help people get out of debt that our gov’t inaction helped put or keep them in in the first place.’ – GOP Congressman,” the progressive congresswoman tweeted Monday night.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clapped back at GOP congressman’s reasoning against $2,000 stimulus checks in a tweet Monday night.
President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan coronavirus relief package on Sunday, which included $600 stimulus payments for Americans, $300 weekly federal unemployment benefits into mid-March, $25 billion in rental assistance, as well as aid for small businesses and funding for education and vaccine distribution.
Upon announcing that he signed the bill, the president also reiterated his calls on Congress to raise the stimulus checks to $2,000 — a goal he shares with many Democrats and some Republicans.
On Monday, the House achieved the required two-thirds majority to pass a bill boosting the stimulus check totals.
The bill now moves to the GOP-controlled Senate, where it is unlikely to pass. Though some in the GOP, like Sen. Marco Rubio, have signaled they support $2,000 checks.
Read more: Trump signs bipartisan coronavirus relief bill after calling on Congress to approve $2,000 stimulus checks
Some GOP voices, however, oppose the $2,000 stimulus checks. GOP Rep. Kevin Brady said on the House floor that he did not approve of increasing the stimulus checks, saying that the money would go toward paying off credit card debt and “new purchases online at Wal-Mart, Best Buy or Amazon.”
He argued that the money should be spent on helping small and mid-sized businesses. His speech was then paraphrased in a tweet by HuffPost’s Matt Fuller.
Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent progressive voice and advocate for increasing the stimulus checks, slammed Brady’s reasoning behind his opposition, replying to his statement with a parodied rephrasing.
“‘I don’t support $2k survival checks because it might help people get out of debt that our gov’t inaction helped put or keep them in in the first place.’ – GOP Congressman,” the progressive congresswoman tweeted Monday night.
In another tweet, Ocasio-Cortez tore into the group of GOP members who opposed lines of the package pushed by House Democrats, including the $2,000 stimulus checks.
“Notice how Republican Congressmen who like to claim they are the party of ‘personal responsibility’ refuse to take any responsibility themselves for blocking retroactive unemployment benefits, voting against $2k survival checks, stoking doubt about the pandemic to begin with, etc,” the New York congresswoman wrote.
