The Majority Of Tennessee’s Congressional Delegation Opposed The $2,000 COVID Stimulus Check “Blanket Approach” To Be Received By Every American, Regardless Of Financial Need.
The Center Square [By Vivian Jones]-
Tennessee’s congressional delegation voted along party lines on a measure to provide $2,000 COVID-19 stimulus checks to every American.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved the measure Monday in a 275 to 134 vote, with support from Tennessee Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen and Rep. Jim Cooper, and opposition from the seven Republicans in Tennessee’s delegation.
“At this difficult time for so many Americans, it is important that we provide them with adequate financial aid which in turn should help our foundering economy,” Cohen said in a statement. “While the additional federal supplement to state unemployment payments in the original bill may have a more immediate impact, this increase in direct payments to most Americans is a significant improvement.”
After voting last week for a measure to provide $600 stimulus checks to every American attached to a $1.4 trillion, pork-filled, omnibus spending bill, Reps. Chuck Fleischman and David Kustoff voted against raising the amount of the stimulus checks to $2,000.
Congressman Phil Roe, who voted for the previous stimulus package, did not cast a vote on the bill on Monday.
Rep. Tim Burchett, who opposed the bill, criticized the “blanket approach” of providing stimulus checks to everyone, regardless of financial need.
“We’ve got to decide if people who never lost their job and are doing alright financially should be eligible for stimulus checks,” Burchett said. “There has to be some degree of separation between those folks and the ones who lost jobs, because more of the money needs to be going towards the ones who are out of work. We need a system that directs the money to those who need it most.”
Reps. Scott Desjarlais and John Rose also opposed the measure, consistent with their votes last week.
Rep. Mark Green called the push for $2,000 checks “selfish and irresponsible.”
“Past generations have given their children a BETTER America. Now @HouseDemocrats are voting to break that contract & empty the treasury for THIS generation’s gain,” Green said in a tweet.
The U.S. Senate is expected to consider the measure on Tuesday.
