Tom McClintock voted against the coronavirus aid package. Here’s why
The coronavirus relief package now moving through Congress is a threat to any economic recovery and “opens the door for anyone who wants to game the system,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, one of only 40 lawmakers to vote against the plan.
The bill, passed by the House last week and will soon be considered by the Senate, is a sweeping package that includes assurances of paid emergency leave for people affected by the coronavirus outbreak. It also has help for states to pay unemployment benefits and Medicaid, and funds food aid for seniors and lower income people.
It passed 363-40, with 140 Republicans joining 223 Democrats voting yes. All 40 no votes were Republicans. California’s five other Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Devin Nunes, voted yes.
“The House bill threatens to postpone the economic recovery by guaranteeing employees up to three months of paid leave under the Family Medical Leave Act,” McClintock said.
“In theory, the purpose is to self-quarantine, recuperate or care for family members who are idled or afflicted, but in reality, it opens the door for anyone who wants to game the system.”
The bill passed early Saturday morning after lengthy negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. President Donald Trump ultimately supported the plan, tweeting “This Bill will follow my direction for free CoronaVirus tests, and paid sick leave for our impacted American workers.”
Pelosi wrote in a letter to colleagues before the vote that the legislation “presents a strong stimulus to our economy to protect the health and financial security of America’s working families as we fight the coronavirus crisis.”
Brynne Kennedy, a Democrat seeking McClintock’s seat, blasted the congressman’s vote.
“Tom McClintock voted to put communities at risk, to undermine our public health system, and to shortchange workers and businesses across our district — and our country. His vote was an attack on common sense and common decency,” she charged.
“Our local hospitals have coronavirus patients, but they have shrinking supplies of protective equipment and our community’s most vulnerable populations don’t have access to tests,” she said. “For Tom McClintock to vote against this bill is an abdication of his most fundamental duty as a member of Congress.”
Monday, McClintock explained his vote, saying that “Benjamin Franklin warned that ‘Passion governs, and she never governs wisely.’’’
The bill, he said, was passed “literally minutes after it was introduced, with no analysis, no cost estimates, virtually no debate and in a general state of political panic.”
McClintock said he understands that in the new few weeks, coronavirus cases are expected to increase.
“But at some point,” he said, “the infection rate will peak and decline. As it does, factories will reopen, employees will get back to work and life will return to normal.”
Businesses and ultimately taxpayers will pay for the bill’s benefits, “leaving a massive debt to repay,” McClintock said.
“The more employees who claim extended leaves, the more productivity losses the business will suffer, potentially leaving some employees no jobs to return to. This is anything but compassionate.”
Remember, he said, “government cannot give a dollar to one person that it hasn’t taken from another. When the health crisis passes, our economic crisis will depend on a rapid return to normalcy – not three months of mass unemployment”
Until this crisis erupted, the economy was routinely described as fundamentally sound and McClintock predicted it would rebound quickly.
“Idled businesses face a liquidity crisis that demands a full-out monetary response from the Federal Reserve and emergency loans for small businesses,” he said. “Idled employees face a liquidity crisis that demands payroll tax relief without adding to the national debt.
“That can be accomplished by allowing individuals to forego payroll taxes this year in exchange for a slightly delayed retirement. Instead, (the bill) actively encourages unemployment that will further damage an economy already ravaged by the coronavirus,” he said. President Donald Trump has urged a reduction in the tax.
Employees and employers now pay 6.2% up to $137,700 of income, and most pay 1.45% for Medicare, with no income limit. Democrats, and many Republicans, have been opposed to that cut.
That cut could work, McClintock suggested, but not the package passed by the House. “If America’s post-coronavirus economic recovery lags behind other countries,” he said, “look no farther than the House’s panicked midnight passage of (the bill).”
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Tom McClintock voted against the coronavirus aid package. Here’s why."
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