Indiana Senator Todd Young was among 10 GOP Senators who met with President Joseph Biden Monday to discuss differences on a COVID-19 economic relief package.
President Biden is proposing a $1.9 trillion package, while the Republican proposal is around $618 billion.
“When it comes to vaccinations, getting people back to work safely and getting our children back into school, there is no disagreement,” said Young.
Young and the President disagree on direct payments to the public. President Biden is proposing $1400 checks and Young wants them to be at $1,000.
He cites a study from Harvard economist Raj Chetty which examined how some Americans spent the last round of stimulus checks.
“If you have a household income of $75,000 or greater, you know how much of that $600 was spent on average?... $14,” said Young.
Young adds that dollars appropriated for coronavirus relief should not be spent on anything unrelated.
“I think I speak for just about every one of my colleagues who don’t believe we should be padding the budgets of profligate state governments so that they might pay for expenditures entirely unrelated to this COVID pandemic,” Young said.
Leaders of the Democratic controlled House and Senate majorities have called on swift passage of the economic relief package.