{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/on-the-senate-floor-murphy-highlights-dire-need-for-2000-stimulus-checks-to-help-struggling-americans-calls-on-senate-republicans-to-pass-legislation", "On The Senate Floor, Murphy Highlights Dire Need For $2,000 Stimulus Checks To Help Struggling Americans, Calls On Senate Republicans To Pass LegislationRead More", "2020-12-29", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "House", "CT", "Christopher Murphy", "M001169", "www.murphy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTONU.S.\r\nSenator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday took to the U.S. Senate floor to\r\nhighlight the dire need for bigger stimulus checks to help American families\r\nstruggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, and called on Senate Majority Leader\r\nMitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues to help pass legislation to\r\ndeliver $2,000 direct payment to working Americans. Millions\r\nof families all across this nation, through no fault of their own, have lost\r\ntheir jobs, have had their hours dramatically cut back. They had no savings,\r\nbecause work doesn't pay in this country anymore. They spent everything they\r\nearned, each month. And so when the economy collapsed, virtually overnight, in\r\nthe spring, they got desperatereally fast, Murphy said. Murphy continued: The only\r\nthing that stands between the American people and a $2,000 emergency survival\r\ncheck is 52 Senate Republicans. You got it? Understand? There's a bill pending\r\nright now before the Senate that gives $2,000 to ordinary Americans. Yes, it\r\ncosts a lot of money. And maybe, down the line, we'll have to ask the\r\nbillionaires to pay for it. But the bill is here right now. The legislative\r\nsession expires in five days. President Trump says he'll sign it. And all that\r\nmatters right now is what these 52 people decide. The House passed the bill\r\nwith lots of Democratic and Republican support. The President supports the\r\nidea. The only thing that can stop $2,000 payments to struggling Americans\r\nright now is 52 Senate Republicans. Some\r\nthings in Washington aren't that simplebut this is, Murphy concluded. A full\r\ntranscript of Murphy's remarks can be found below: America\r\nhas 600 billionaires. Now, a\r\nbillion dollars doesn't sound like a lot of money these days. President Trump\r\njust signed a bill begrudgingly that has $900 billion in it. But trust me, a\r\nbillion dollars is still a whole lot of money. It's actually so much money that\r\nit's really hard to find words to describe what it looks like. But let me try. If\r\nyou're, for instance, one of the half a million Americans who make the minimum\r\nwage in this nation, and you're lucky enough to work 40 hours a week, guess how\r\nmany years you would have to work in order to get a billion dollars? 500 years?\r\n1,000 years? 10,000 years? No, you're not even close. If you make minimum wage\r\nin America today, you would need to work for 75,000 years in order to make a\r\nbillion dollars. 75,000 years. Neanderthals were roaming the earth 75,000 years\r\nago. Those guys, if they made minimum wage, would have to work up until present\r\nday every single day, and that is, of course, if they didn't spend a dime of\r\nthe money they made, in order to accrue a billion dollars. A billion\r\ndollars is a bananas amount of money. And there are 600 people in America today\r\nwho make at least that amount of money, or have that amount of money to their\r\nname. That's crazy. With a billion dollars, you are leading a life that frankly\r\nnone of us can really imagine. You've got private planes, you've got yachts,\r\nyou've got household staffs in the dozens. You've got enough money to make sure\r\nthat your children and your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren and\r\nyour great-great-grandchildren never have to work a day of their lives.\r\nGenerations of your offspring can just live lives of indolent luxury, without a\r\ncare if they so choose. You know\r\nwhere I was two days before Thanksgiving this year? I was at Hamden Middle\r\nSchool, in my state. To help hand out free food for the unemployed, the poor,\r\nand the disabled ahead of a long holiday weekend. Those long weekends can be\r\nreally hard. Especially the ones that fall at the end of the month, when the\r\nSNAP benefits have long run out. I got there as darkness fell, but right at the\r\nbeginning of the event. And I noticed that down the hill from the round-about\r\nat the school where they were handing out the food there was a usually empty\r\nparking lot. And that night, at that moment, at the beginning of the event,\r\nthat parking lot was lit up by hundreds of sets of headlights, hundreds of cars\r\njust sitting there idling in that parking lot. I asked\r\nthe organizer of the event what was going on in the parking lot. Was that some\r\nother event happening that evening? Why all the cars? He told\r\nme The cars started pulling into that lot hours ago. They got wind we were\r\nhanding out food and they got here early to make sure that they didn't get left\r\nout. We have enough food for 300 people, and there were 300 cars in that lot\r\nbefore I even got here.' That is\r\nwhat has happened during this pandemic. Millions of families all across this\r\nnation, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, have had their\r\nhours dramatically cut back. They had no savings, because work doesn't pay in\r\nthis country anymore. They spent everything they earned, each month. And so\r\nwhen the economy collapsed, virtually overnight, in the spring, they got\r\ndesperatereally fast. And I\r\nwant you to think about what it's really likeon an hour to hour basiswhen you\r\ndon't have enough money for food for your family. The decisions you have to\r\nmake every single day are practically animalistic. Do you make your kids go\r\nhungry during the day, when they need the most energy, or do you skimp on\r\ndinner and force your kids to go to bed with hunger pangs? There are hundreds\r\nof thousands of mothers and fathers who, right now, as I am speaking, are\r\nmaking that decision today. That's the reality of this pandemic. But\r\nhere's another reality. Those 600 billionaires in this country? As it turns\r\nout, as a group, they lost nothingnothingduring this pandemic. No, exactly\r\nthe opposite. They got richer. The wealthiest 600 Americans, collectively,\r\nadded $1 trillion dollars to their bank accounts. Let me say it again, the\r\nrichest 600 Americans gained $1 trillion over the course of 2020. And let's\r\nbe clear, that's not money that grew in their money tree orchards. Yeah, we're\r\nprinting some more money these days, but wealth isn't far away from a zero sum\r\ngame still. And so when we allow for 600 people in the country to control 50%\r\nof the nation's wealth, that's coming out of your pocket. 600\r\npeople, in a country of 328 million, isn't a lot of people. But you know what's\r\na smaller number than 600? 52. There are\r\n52 Republicans in this chamber. 52 people who are going to have a decision to\r\nmake about what do in a country where millions are literally starving, as we\r\nspeak, while 600 billionaires count the $1 trillion dollars in additional\r\nwealth that they have accumulated during the period of national calamity. The\r\nquestion before these 52 Senate Republicans is simple. It's simple: should we\r\ngive $2,000 to low and middle income Americans, right now, to help them survive\r\nthis crisis? That's the decision Senate Republicans have to make, right now.\r\nTime is running out. 600 billionaires got $1 trillion richer this year, and the\r\nquestion before Senate Republicans is this: are you willing to spend an amount\r\nequal to just half of that windfall to America's billionaires, to help 160\r\nmillion Americans? Because\r\nright now, the 52 Senate Republicans serving in this chamber are the only thing\r\nstanding in the way of $2,000 being sent to 160 million of our neediest\r\ncitizens. The House passed the bill authorizing the checks in a big bipartisan\r\nvote. It is hard to get two-thirds of the House of Representatives to agree on\r\nwhat time it is. But two-thirds of the House of Representatives voted for the\r\n$2,000 checks. President\r\nTrump supports the $2,000 checks. So he'll sign the bill if the Senate sends it\r\nto him. We can vote on the House bill today. Like, in a matter of hours if\r\nSenate Republicans agree. So why\r\nisn't this happening? Why didn't Senator McConnell announce the schedule for\r\nthe vote on a $2,000 checks bill? Why didn't he agree to Senator Schumer's\r\nrequest to bring it up for an immediate vote? Now a lot\r\nof Republicans are saying they object to the payments because it costs too\r\nmuch. And it's going to add too much to the deficit. Well frankly, spare me the\r\nfake righteous indignation about the deficit all of a sudden. Three years ago,\r\nthese same deficit hawk Republicans passed a tax cut bill that before the\r\npandemic hit, had already added over $200 billion to the annual deficit. And\r\nthat was a tax cut where 80% of the benefits went to the richest 1% of\r\nAmericans. Warren Buffet wrote in his note to investors last year that the\r\ndeficit-financed tax cuts earned his empire $29 billion overnight. That\r\nwindfall, Buffet noted, did not come from anything we accomplished at\r\nBerkshire.' So it's funnydeficits just didn't matter to the 52 when it was tax\r\ncuts to the 600 richest people in America. But even\r\nif this Congress wasn't ending in five days, and we had time to figure out how\r\nto pay for it, you know how we can't pay for it? Cutting foreign aid. President\r\nTrump has been talking a lot about foreign aid in the last week. Now, the money\r\nwe spend on foreign aid, all supported by Republicans and Democrats over the\r\nyears, all of it smart investments in our nation's security, that actually\r\nwasn't in the COVID relief package. It was in the annual budget, as it always\r\nis. It just so happens that this year, the COVID relief package and the annual\r\nbudget were passed together. But just\r\nfor argument's sake, let's say Trump got his way and every single dollar of\r\nforeign aid was cut out of the budget. Would that pay for the $2,000 checks?\r\nNot even close. President Trump apparently has an oversized impression of how\r\nmuch money we spend on foreign aid. Because our annual foreign aid spending\r\ndoesn't even equal 10% of the cost of a one-time $2,000 payment to low and\r\nmiddle income citizens. There's\r\nalso some speculationthat Senator McConnell isgoing to join\r\ntogether the$2,000 payments with other muchmore controversial\r\nmeasures,much more complicated measures,like the reform of our\r\ninternetliability laws.That is an invitation for thisentire\r\neffort to fall apart.The House has finished voting.They have passed\r\nthe $2,000payment bill and sent it to us.They are not interested\r\nintaking up anything else.If we start adding poison pillsto\r\nthe $2,000 payment bill, thatis just another way of tellingthe\r\nAmerican people that thisbody doesn't support $2,000payments. Listen,\r\nbeing a billionaire must be crazy. I make a lot of money as a Senator, but even\r\nI would have to work 7,500 years before my earnings equaled a billion dollars.\r\nYou know what was happening 7,500 years ago? The Stone Age. There\r\nisn't a good reason to oppose giving Americans who aren't billionaires a measly\r\n$2,000 check to help them put food on the table for their kids in this middle\r\nof this once-in-a-lifetime crisis. There isn't a good reason to choose to make\r\nmoms and dads all across this country decide which two meals they'll feed their\r\nkids each day, because three meals is not an option. $2,000 doesn't put dinner\r\non the table every night, but man, going to bed hungry when you're eleven, it\r\nsucks. And even dealing with it every other night, instead of every single\r\nnightno kid is going to turn that down. There are\r\n52 of you. And in the next 24 to 48 hours, you get to decide. Do you protect\r\nthe billionaires? Or do you choose to feed that eleven year old kid? The only\r\nthing that stands between the American people and a $2,000 emergency survival\r\ncheck is 52 Senate Republicans. You got it? Understand? There's a bill pending\r\nright now before the Senate that gives $2,000 to ordinary Americans. Yes, it\r\ncosts a lot of money. And maybe, down the line, we'll have to ask the\r\nbillionaires to pay for it. But the bill is here right now. The legislative\r\nsession expires in five days. President Trump says he'll sign it. And all that\r\nmatters right now is what these 52 people decide. The House passed the bill\r\nwith lots of Democratic and Republican support. The President supports the\r\nidea. The only thing that can stop $2,000 payments to struggling Americans\r\nright now is 52 Senate Republicans. Some\r\nthings in Washington aren't that simplebut this is. I yield the floor. ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/on-the-senate-floor-murphy-highlights-dire-need-for-2000-stimulus-checks-to-help-struggling-americans-calls-on-senate-republicans-to-pass-legislation"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.335441928356886, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}