Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida wrote in a letter that he wants President-elect Joe Biden to focus immediately on getting $2,000 checks out to Americans to help during the pandemic.
“Millions of working class families are in dire need of additional relief, which is why I supported this effort last month,” he wrote in the letter. “Unfortunately, the Senate was not able to consider the House-passed bill. Although I share many of my colleagues’ concerns about the long-term effects of this additional spending, we simply cannot ignore the fact that millions of working class families across the nation are still in desperate need of relief.”
Rubio wrote that Congress and the government have to “recognize the positive message” it would send if both political parties came together to pass the larger stimulus checks.
Rubio wrote that he also recognized the tendency of popular and necessary legislation to get caught up in leverage to secure other items to pass, and he said he hoped direct payments wouldn’t “get caught up in the normal political games by adding a wish list of far left or other unrelated priorities” to the bill.
“True recovery — economically, politically, culturally and spiritually — will take time, and it will require creativity that spans beyond the typical partisan divides in Washington. We do not need partisan stunts, more show votes, or cynical ploys,” he wrote, adding that Biden could potentially “help break the paralysis” in Washington.
The recent $900 billion stimulus package passed in December contained $600 direct payments for Americans. Numerous lawmakers lobbied in December to get the number changed to $2,000, including President Donald Trump and several high-ranking Democrats, although this measure was struck down by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The $600 payments began going out early in 2021, and the government had a self-imposed deadline of Jan. 15 for them to be disbursed.
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