Tag: Republican Reality

While Republicans Vote No, Their States Win Big In Rescue Plan

National Memo logo

As President Joe Biden signed Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill into law Thursday afternoon, Republicans falsely claimed the bill only serves to bail out “blue states” at the expense of “red states” — but the landmark legislation will deliver massive funding and relief to many deep-red states in need during the pandemic.

The American Rescue Plan will send more than $195 billion in aid to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., as well as $130.2 billion in aid to local governments throughout the country, benefiting red and blue states alike. In fact, according to a recent Reuters analysis, traditionally Republican states will receive a slightly disproportionate amount of federal aid from the package as compared to traditionally Democratic states — $3,192 per state resident as opposed to $3,160. And the bill levies no extra taxes on red states.

But on Thursday afternoon, Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) took to social media to criticize the legislation, tweeting, “It’s red states like Georgia who will have to bail out the deep blue states who recklessly spent taxpayer $ on irresponsible decisions over the past year. They need to face the consequences of their actions rather than lean on the red states & the stimulus to bail them out!” Continue reading.

Texas’ lieutenant governor suggests grandparents are willing to die for US economy

The lieutenant governor of Texas argued in an interview on Fox News Monday night that the United States should go back to work, saying grandparents like him don’t want to sacrifice the country’s economy during the coronavirus crisis.

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, 69, made the comments on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after President Donald Trump said he wanted to reopen the country for business in weeks, not months.

Patrick also said the elderly population, who the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said are more at risk for COVID-19, can take care of themselves and suggested that grandparents wouldn’t want to sacrifice their grandchildren’s economic future.   Continue reading.

‘Language as a weapon’: In Trump era, immigration debate grows more heated over what words to use

The following article by David Nakamura was posted on the Washington Post website January 21, 2018:

Supporters of “dreamers,” the protected undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children, demonstrate outside the Capitol on Jan. 19. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)

Lars Larson, a conservative radio host in Portland, Ore., who supports President Trump, uses the phrase “illegal aliens” on his nationally syndicated talk show to describe immigrants living in the country unlawfully.

“I think it’s a way to define a problem,” Larson said. “We’re a nation of laws.”

Cecilia Muñoz, a longtime immigrant rights advocate who served as President Barack Obama’s domestic policy adviser, calls those words “pejorative” and prefers alternatives such as “undocumented immigrants.”

“Aliens, in the public mind, are not a good thing,” Muñoz said.

Their disagreement over how to describe an estimated population of 11 million people might seem like minor semantics in the tempestuous, decades-long debate over how to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. But people on both sides say the yawning gap in language has come to symbolize — and directly contribute to — the inability of Congress and the general public to forge consensus. An impasse on immigration was at the center of the budget fight that led to a shutdown of the federal government Saturday. Continue reading “‘Language as a weapon’: In Trump era, immigration debate grows more heated over what words to use”