Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., calling for roll-call vote for the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill and checking on a House quorum Friday was "hypersensitive over process," Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said to Newsmax TV.
"[Massie was] pretty tone deaf with respect to where we are as a nation, trying to survive this unprecedented crisis," Arrington told Friday's "Spicer and Co." "And, to provide the much-needed relief, time is of the essence, if we're going to bounce back and recover, both from a family standpoint and workers, but also the economy."
Arrington does agree the stimulus bill might have some wasteful spending, but it was not worth delaying the money to the American workers and businesses amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
"Anytime you have this much money, $2 trillion, the most we've ever spent at one time, and any time you're moving this fast, there's going to be waste, fraud, and abuse potential," he said. "We've put some guardrails in with respect to the Treasury fund, inspector general, and there's an oversight board. We just need to tighten things up there, because, again, speed is critical to our getting back, recovering and rebounding from this big hit to the economy."
Arrington did add a rejection of House Democrats' attempts to stuff the bill with liberal agenda items that did not address the coronavirus crisis, like arts and public television money, but "we cannot wait for perfect," he said.
"While that's shameful and political opportunism like I've never seen, I'm not going to be able to send this back to the Senate and protract this process anymore," Arrington said. "We're going to get it out there. We can hash through those things later, and we've gotta help the American people.
"That's of the utmost importance right now."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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