Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is already downplaying the positive impact the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan will have on the nation, even going so far as to claim that any benefits should be seen as the effects from the coronavirus stimulus package passed a year ago.

Of course, that package, known as the Cares Act, was passed when Republicans controlled the Senate and signed by disgraced former President Donald Trump. That stimulus ran its course last year as Americans received $1,200 checks while the wealthy received the lion’s share of the benefits that should have gone to small businesses. Republicans largely failed to address the crumbling economy in that bill and never followed up with further aid as millions of Americans struggled to put food on the table and pay their bills. Eventually, Americans would receive a meager $600 check, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

The American Rescue Plan, however, goes much further to help the majority of Americans in need during this time of crisis. Republicans refused to send money to help financially strapped states and cities in their stimulus bills. Democrats did not. Americans also will receive bigger stimulus checks, unemployment benefits, and a slew of other assistance all while the new law addresses the pandemic by boosting vaccination efforts and provides desperately needed aid to small businesses.

It’s a big deal that Democrats passed without a single Republican vote in support, and that’s why McConnell took to the Senate floor to downplay the most progressive piece of legislation in generations that is big enough to help the economy and fight the pandemic, neither of which Trump and the GOP did.

“Senate Republicans led the bipartisan Cares Act that got the country through last year,” McConnell claimed. “2021 is set to be a historic comeback year, not because of the far-left legislation that was passed after the tide had already turned, but because of the resilience of the American people.”

Again, the Republican stimulus package mostly helped Wall Street, but the American people and small businesses were basically left to fend for themselves. The effects of that package were minimal and very short term. The pandemic worsened as 2020 dragged on and so did the economy. McConnell wants us to believe that the Cares Act will be the driving force of any improvements in our country. He is deliberately trying to undermine the importance and impact of the American Rescue Plan that not a single member of his party voted for. Americans should not buy any of the bullsh*t he is selling. If Republicans had their way, the suffering would not only continue, it would be getting worse.

MSNBC host Ali Velshi took McConnell to task in response.

“I agree with the resilience of the American people part, but the part where McConnell is trying to convince us that the gains that we’re trying to see on the heels of this Joe Biden $1.9 trillion rescue package are not related to the historic rescue package at all and they’re left over from the package that Republicans did support last year,” Velshi said. “You can call it a stretch or a silly and cynical lie. You are seeing the desperate lies from Mitch McConnell because he knows how big the legislation is and it is a huge deal that will likely pull the economy out of the COVID-induced free-fall that we’ve been experiencing and we will lift millions of Americans out of poverty in the process and that will be the important part.”

Here’s the video via YouTube:

If McConnell’s disingenuous claims aren’t low enough, some Republicans are actually taking credit for the benefits of the American Rescue Plan even though they voted against it, proving there is no low to which Republicans won’t stoop.

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