President Biden and Congressional Democrats are pushing to pass a massive $1.9 trillion "COVID-19 relief" bill, with or without Republican support. But a closer examination of the bill reveals the majority of the spending is not even related to the pandemic, but on pork projects, bailouts, or Democrat wish list items like raising the federal minimum wage. "Most of it is absolutely going to total and complete garbage, and there's not much we can to about it right now," says Chris Begala, KTRH political analyst. "This is the fourth dip into this (for COVID relief), and we are into trillions---literally trillions---of dollars of spending."
Indeed, according to the Wall Street Journal analysis, only $825 billion of the bill is actually for items related to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving more than $1 trillion for the rest. That includes $350 billion for bailouts of local and state governments, mostly in debt-ridden Democrat-led cities and states. It also includes billions for Obamacare subsidies, money for a bridge in New York, and a half-billion for "arts and humanities." The bill even allocates more than $100 billion in funding that won't be spent until between 2022 and 2028.
Other provisions in the bill are downright insulting. "Some of these dollars are going to track down illegal immigrants with criminal records, who were thrown out of our country," says Begala. "And we are going to then transport them back into our country."
Nevertheless, Begala predicts the Dems will ram the legislation through, thanks to their narrow advantages in the House and Senate. "They're going to pass it, and the taxpayers be damned," he tells KTRH. "This is outrageous, it's disgusting, and it's criminal, the spending that is going on."