the coronavirus crisis
GOP leader McCarthy takes last-gasp stand against COVID-19 relief bill ahead of House vote
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took one last stand against President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan ahead of the lower chamber's final vote on the bill, which is almost certain to pass.
Democrats, McCarthy said, have "abandoned any pretense of unity," and he accused them of stuffing the bill — which he repeatedly labeled "socialism" — with waste that was unrelated to solving the pandemic, warning that "serious problems" are "immediately on the horizon" for the American people. "History will not be kind to what transpires here today," he said.
House Democrats brushed off the criticism as nothing more than "scare tactics," however. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), for instance, said facetiously that if Democrats hosted a "potluck picnic, Republicans would call it socialism." Tim O'Donnell