By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- GOP Congressman Michael Waltz, did not mince words Monday on Twitter in explaining who is to blame for holding up the coronavirus rescue aid package for all Americans that is vitally needed as more are forced from their jobs and worried about being able to provide for their families.
"While Americans are getting sick from #coronavirus and losing their jobs, @SpeakerPelosi is playing politics instead of helping them," said Waltz, the Republican Congressman from St. Augustine, in reference to Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House.
Among the items in Pelosi's bill:
• Full offset of airline emissions by 2025;
• Green New Deal provisions like gas statistics for individual flights;
• Wind and solar tax deductions;
• Retirement plans for community newspaper employees;
• For companies accepting assistance, one-third of board members must be chosen by workers;
• Corporate pay statistics by race & race statistics for all corporate boards at companies receiving assistance;
• Bailing out all current debt of USPS;
• Required early voting;
• Required same-day voter registration;
• $10,000 bailout for student loans per student;
• $15 minimum wage at companies receiving government assistance;
• Permanent paid leave at companies receiving assistance;
On the Homefront, grassroots Republicans in Volusia County, are echoing Waltz' sentiments that now is not the time for Pelosi and Company to add a Christmas shopping list during this coronavirus pandemic when families across America are struggling mightily to pay their bills and hold onto their homes or stave off rental evictions through no fault of their own with government-ordered shutdowns of businesses large and small.
Nathan Johnson, a Republican insider from Deltona, who was a statehouse staffer for former State Rep. Fred Costello, R-Ormond Beach, said Pelosi and her Democrat underlings are showing their true colors.
“It wasn’t just the disruption of negotiations which were close to conclusion," Johnson said. "The bill Pelosi put forward is a liberal laundry and wish list of things they know they could not get enacted unless the nation were in a vulnerable position. It’s the extortionist’s price for the release of your loved ones."
Johnson said Pelosi and many of her Democratic colleagues are seemingly unaware "of the fury they are about to unleash in the nation."
Johnson said despite his own history of repeated criticisms of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, he believes the top Democrat understands what's at stake, which is why there "still is a chance of a Senate deal being reached despite and without rewarding Pelosi’s extortion."
Erika Benfield, a DeBary councilwoman and a Republican candidate for a seat in the Florda House, said she's "fuming" over the list of items Pelosi and the Democrats sought to load up into the bill despite the dire needs of the American people.
"I am disgusted with a partisan Christmas wish list at a time where you’d think people entrusted in leadership could come together," said Benfield, who is running in the Republican primary, along with Webster Barnaby and Zenaida Denizac, both former Deltona city commissioners.
The bottom line in the partisan divide in Washington can and will have strong repercussions in the 2020 Elections and beyond, Nathan Johnson warned.
"A recession is when your neighbor loses their job." Johnson explained, adding, "A depression is when you lose your job. A recovery is when Congressional Democrats lose their (jobs)! "