Bernie Sanders Unleashes Fiery Senate Floor Speech After McConnell Objection on $2,000 Checks: ‘Working Families Need Help NOW’

After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell objected to an effort to vote on increasing direct payments to $2000, Senator Bernie Sanders spoke on the Senate floor demanding they get it done this week.

The push to increase payments to people struggling in the middle of the pandemic has bipartisan support — President Donald Trump said last week he supports it, President-elect Joe Biden said Monday he supports it, Sanders has been joined by both Democrats and Republicans in pushing for it in the Senate, and on Monday lawmakers in both parties came together to pass the measure in the House.

Some Republican senators have indicated their support, while others like Marsha Blackburn have come out against it.

Sanders said on the Senate floor Tuesday, “The working class of this country today faces more economic desperation than at any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s. And working families need help now.”

“It is time for the Senate to step up to the plate,” he continued, after commending the House for Monday’s vote.

Sanders brought up the serious economic consequences of not providing more relief to Americans during this crisis and made a point of saying, “Congress has provided massive tax breaks for the very wealthiest people in our country, which is one of the reasons why today we have more income and wealth inequality than any time since the 1920s. In fact, in the midst of this pandemic, this terrible pandemic, inequality has grown worse with many in the billionaire class seeing their wealth increase by hundreds of billions of dollars while average Americans struggle with food on the table.”

“We have just passed the largest military budget in the history of our country,” he added. “There was almost no debate about the size of that huge budget.”

Sanders has made it clear that he intends to block the Senate vote to override the president’s NDAA veto until the Senate takes up the direct payments. As he finished his remarks, he again tried to push for the Senate to pass the bill, and McConnell objected again.

You can watch above, via C-SPAN 2.