Jim Justice, the Republican governor of West Virginia, urged his colleagues in Congress to “go bigger rather than smaller” on the upcoming coronavirus relief bill, the Washington Post reports.
“We’ve got a real problem; we’ve got people in this country that can’t pay their power bill, can’t pay their car payment, absolutely scared to death about their rent payment. You’ve got businesses that are falling on their face all over the place and don’t know where to turn,” Justice said in an Washington Post Live interview on Monday.
Ten Republican Senators presented a counteroffer proposal to President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package on Monday, proposing a $600 billion bill that would cut funding to get schools to reopen, cut a $15 minimum wage provision, and cut direct stimulus payments from $1,400 to $1,000.
“From the stand point of either going bigger or going smaller, to me there’s no question. You may very well leave some money on the table by going bigger but in this situation it will be the only way that we can turn our economy around and get our people righted up and get going,” he said.
According to many economists, the weak recovery from the Bush recession of 2008 stemmed from the fact that the 2009 recovery package passed by Congress was too small to jumpstart the economy. The Biden Administration learned from that, and included a sharp increase in stimulus monies.