Durbin, Duckworth defend House Dems’ $3T stimulus plan

By Rick Pearson · May 30, 2020

Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth on Thursday defended the $3 trillion coronavirus relief package approved by House Democrats earlier this month and criticized Republicans who control the Senate for not moving more quickly to assist taxpayers and local governments. Appearing on a televised town hall on WGN-Ch. 9, the two Democratic senators also appealed for a sense of public unity as the pandemic and stay-at-home orders have exacerbated political divides — something Duckworth said has been promoted by President Donald Trump. “I think we start off by having a commander in chief, a president in the White House who does not stoke those divides, right? We need to set the example as political leaders, as those who are in government, for the support of health care and to believe and listen to science,” said Duckworth, who has been on the list of those being considered as running mate to presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden. “I think the vast majority of Americans are actually listening to scientists and are doing the sensible thing, which is to limit our contacts but then to keep ourselves and our family members and our neighbors safe,” she said. “That’s what we need to do, is look out for one another. We can come together and we can survive this, but only if we come together as a group. And we can’t just listen to those on the fringe.” Durbin, the state’s senior senator and the No. 2 ranking Democrat in the chamber, said there was a “real sense of urgency” for moving ahead with a new coronavirus relief package. He and Duckworth backed the measure the House passed on May 15, which is opposed by Republicans led by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell. The Republicans favor a pause in financial relief to see how previous money allocated as a result of the pandemic have been spent. Durbin said the House package would extend a $600 federal weekly bonus to unemployment checks, which is set to expire at the end of July, provide another round of $1,200 stimulus checks to adults and boost the amount to parents of children, enhance funding for hospitals, and extend and relax provisions of the Paycheck Protection Program to small businesses. “The biggest piece of it goes to state and local governments,” Durbin said of the $1 trillion allocated for that purpose in the Housepassed bill. “If we don’t get a helping hand from Washington for state and local governments, there are going to be layoffs of policemen and firefighters and teachers and medical workers — the exact opposite of what we need at this moment,” he said. Illinois lawmakers last weekend approved a new state budget that is heavily dependent upon more federal help from Washington. The state would borrow up to $5 billion from a special municipal program created by the Federal Reserve and would pay it off from relief funds from a new stimulus bill. Durbin said while people may ask how the nation can afford continued multitrillion-dollar efforts to keep the economy afloat, he cited comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Powell, he said, is “a very conservative Republican leader, who says, ‘Now is the time to get this economy back and strong, or you ain’t seen nothing yet when it comes to debt and deficit.’” rap30@aol.com