Sens. Toomey and Casey split on party lines on financial rescue vote

Pennsylvania’s senators split on party lines Sunday night as Senate Democrats blocked a vote on a $1.8 trillion GOP-crafted coronavirus aid package, leaving party leaders desperately trying to negotiate a compromise Monday.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, voted in favor of the package Senate Republicans crafted. He said he was shocked that Democrats blocked action.

”I am going to try to convey to my colleagues a sense of the urgency that I think this moment demands and they apparently don’t understand, because our Democratic colleagues all voted to prevent us from considering this legislation,” Toomey said on the Senate floor, following the vote.

Calling the bill largely a handout for big business that lacked accountability for corporate bailouts and failed to provide adequate relief for small and medium-sized businesses and working Americans, Democrats balked at the largest ever bailout bill.

“It’s a rigged, massive corporate giveaway that creates a half-trillion-dollar slush fund for the Trump administration to hand out money to its corporate allies without any accountability, while families and local businesses get pennies on the dollar. The American people deserve a plan that puts them and their health and well-being first, not the big corporations and special interests,” said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton.

His statement echoed concerns from Senate Democratic leaders who cited flaws in the financial rescue passed after the 2008 financial meltdown.

Toomey, however, said Democrats failed to consider that the new bill was designed to get aid to shuttered businesses and families alike in the quickest way possible. He said inaction carries the risk of cascading consequences.

“Well, it means an awful lot of things,” Toomey said, chastising his colleagues on the other side of the aisle. “But the most important thing that it means is that, the guy who wakes up tomorrow morning and can’t go to work. What’s he supposed to do? How’s he going to support his family? Because he can’t get a paycheck. It’s not that he doesn’t want to get a paycheck. It’s not that he doesn’t want to go to work. He’s not allowed, he’s not allowed. So he’s going to have no income pretty soon, because guess what? The company that he works for is not allowed to have any sales. They’re closed.”