Representative Kevin Hern (OK-01) led his colleagues on the Republican Study Committee’s Budget and Spending Task Force on a letter condemning the rampant spending in HR 1319, criticizing the bill for its lack of targeted aid and excessive price tag on issues unrelated to COVID-19.

“When I talk to Oklahomans about what’s in this bill, they’re horrified,” said Rep. Hern. “My constituents across the political spectrum feel let down by the Biden Administration, lied to and ignored. The so-called relief bill we vote on tonight does not help American families and workers recover from the virus or rebuild their local economies. It helps Democrat politicians alone – and they’re taking your tax dollars to do it! Pelosi and Biden are willing to bleed the American people dry in order to pass their radical agenda. As members of the minority party, there are few legislative tools at our disposal to stop their blatant power grab, but we cannot sit idly by and watch as they dig our country into debts that we will never recover from. I thank my Budget and Spending Task Force team for joining me on this letter of opposition, we hope and pray that cooler heads prevail in the Senate and stop this Administration from spending away our children’s future.”

Joining Rep. Hern on the letter are RSC Chairman Jim Banks and Budget and Spending Task Force members Rep. Roger Williams, Rep. James Baird, Rep. Glenn Grothman, Rep. Michael Cloud, Rep. Ralph Norman, Rep. Bob Good, Rep. Trent Kelly, Rep. Ron Estes, and Rep. Ben Cline.

The letter to Speaker Pelosi can be found here and below.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives
Office of the Speaker
H-232, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

February 26, 2021

Madam Speaker,

As the membership of the Republican Study Committee’s Budget and Spending Task Force, we write to express our strong opposition to the so-called stimulus package quickly moving through Congress.

For more than a year, we have seen our communities pull together to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.  We have worked together to pass into law several landmark bills, such as the CARES Act, to aid the American people in this fight. As the end of the pandemic is in sight, we must reaffirm our commitment to removing government taxation and regulation as a barrier to prosperity and recovery. Tragically though, the legislation you have proposed, thinly veiled in purpose, would instead add tremendously to those burdens and the federal government’s control over our lives while doing the least to respond to this pandemic.

The deficit impact of this bill, $1.9 trillion, is only the tip of the iceberg of its total cost to our nation. You have shamelessly perpetrated the falsehood that this bill would do nothing but aid Americans. Even Larry Summers, one of President Obama’s economic advisors, believes this bill would “set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.” This bill’s cost, roughly $15,000 per household, would be money drained from Americans today and a promissory note on the backs of our children, plus interest.

Every dollar taxed is a dollar stolen from a hard-working American. Every dollar borrowed by the government is a dollar taken from a prospective student, homeowner, or small business. Every dollar printed diminishes the value of families’ lifetime savings and home values. To get your $1.9 trillion, you must first bleed dry the American families and small businesses you claim to defend.

To add insult to injury, much of this bill does not even pretend to help those affected by the pandemic. Currently, less than 9% of this so-called stimulus bill would go towards addressing COVID-19 issues. Among other provisions, this bill:

•  Would give at least $350 billion as bailouts to state and local governments, while they have all collectively only experienced a decrease of $7.6 billion in revenue losses for the first 9 months of 2020.
• Would expand aid for the wealthiest income groups, providing over $16,000 in aid to certain couples making $150,000 annually.
• Would extend PPP funding, meant to save small businesses, to certain labor unions and nonprofit organizations.
• Would bail out the most mismanaged union run pensions.
•  Would give stimulus checks and other subsidies to families with illegal aliens.
• Would give kickbacks to left leaning environmental groups.

Further, this bill contains a change to minimum wage laws that would throw over 1.4 million employees, and their family members, into unemployment and poverty at a time of record unemployment for our country.

We believe that the role of government is to protect access to our citizens’ God-given and individual rights to, life, liberty, and the fruits of their labors. This legislation violates these principles and would serve as an anchor weighing down our nation’s future. It is our duty as representatives of the American people to counsel reason and to strongly oppose this legislation.

Sincerely,

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