Washington Post forced to update fact-check after GOP senator proven right about COVID stimulus payment to Boston bomber



The Washington Post has updated a fact-check from last March that gave Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) two Pinocchios for predicting that the Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, would get a coronavirus stimulus check after Democrats blocked an amendment to prevent stimulus funds from going to prisoners.

"We received an email from Cotton’s press secretary, James Arnold, who noted that Tsarnaev did indeed receive a stimulus check. This news emerged in a filing made by the Justice Department seeking to seize the money for criminal restitution he still owes," Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote Thursday in an update to his March 9 fact-check.

The Post had reviewed claims made by Senate Republicans after Democrats blocked an amendment from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to the fast-tracked coronavirus stimulus bill. Cassidy's amendment would have prevented the treasury secretary from sending stimulus checks to any individual in prison. On March 8, Cotton warned that Tsarnaev could be one of many prisoners who would get a $1,400 check from U.S. taxpayers because Democrats killed the Cassidy amendment.

The left recognizes that this was a bad idea and that they're going to pay a price at the polls. \n\nGet ready for campaign ads. \n\nSo liberals and their media allies are trying to spin it for damage control.
— Tom Cotton (@Tom Cotton) 1615214075

"The left recognizes that this was a bad idea and that they're going to pay a price at the polls. Get ready for campaign ads," Cotton wrote on Twitter.

Republicans said the amendment was a necessary fix to correct a 2019 ruling by a federal judge that blocked the Internal Revenue Service from creating regulations to deny stimulus payments to prisoners.

The Washington Post accused Cotton of "scaremongering." Kessler cited prisoner advocates who pointed out that Cotton and other Republicans voted for previous coronavirus stimulus bills that lacked the language excluding prisoners in the Cassidy amendment. He also quoted the argument Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) made on the Senate floor that claimed the Cassidy amendment would harm the families of prisoners, who are disproportionately black.

The Post said the Cassidy amendment was "not serious legislation," dismissing Cotton's warnings as campaign rhetoric and handing down a rating of two Pinocchios, meaning there were "significant omissions and/or exaggerations" in his claim.

However, on Wednesday a court filing revealed that Tsarnaev, who was convicted in 2015 for bombing the Boston Marathon, received a $1,400 stimulus payment. He has been ordered by prosecutors to return the taxpayer funds, along with any other money sent to him.

Cotton's press secretary, James Arnold, wrote to the Post demanding an immediate correction to last March's erroneous fact-check.

“You portrayed Senator Cotton’s amendment as pure political theater—'not serious legislation'—warning of an outcome that, according to your article, was very unlikely to happen," Arnold wrote. “Now that it has in fact happened, we’re asking that you update your story to include that Senator Cotton’s concerns did come true and that his amendment would have prevented it.”

Arnold added that Cotton's office disagreed with the Post's characterization of the Cassidy amendment as "crafted for future campaign ads" rather than acknowledging "legitimate policy disagreements" between Republicans and Democrats, specifically objecting to the phrase "scaremongering."

In the update, Kessler acknowledged Cotton's "predictive powers."

"He said the Boston bomber would get a stimulus check — and Tsarnaev did. Now, if the government is successful, this money will go to victims. So Tsarnaev still will not keep it. But in retrospect, the use of the phrase of 'scaremongering' was inappropriate," Kessler wrote. "Cotton had raised a legitimate issue of concern, even if he framed it in a political way. The term 'hyped up' in the headline went too far as well.

"Thus, we will reduce the rating on this claim to One Pinocchio — our version of 'mostly true.' His statement still lacks some context but he was certainly correct that Tsarnaev would receive a stimulus check."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Cotton blasted Democrats for voting against the Cassidy amendment and permitting COVID-19 stimulus funds to go to prisoners like Tsarnaev.

"Every single Senate Democrat voted to send COVID relief payments to prisoners, including terrorists and mass murderers like the Boston Bomber," Cotton said. "Each dollar Dzhokhar Tsarnaev receives should go to the families of those he brutally injured and killed."

Kennedy: Biden's $1.9 trillion bill is an 'orgy of pork,' shouldn't be called a COVID relief bill



Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Wednesday slammed President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan" as an "orgy of pork," criticizing Democrats for refusing to compromise with Republicans and for loading the bill with spending that is unrelated to coronavirus relief.

"President Biden said in putting together the bill, he said we want to meet you, us, the Republicans, halfway. If that's the case he's a damn poor judge of distance," Kennedy said during an interview on Fox News. "He's rejected everything we've proposed. This bill is dreadful."

President Biden’s $2,000,000,000,000 coronavirus bill is an orgy of pork. Calling it a coronavirus bill is like cal… https://t.co/ivwWVmPk2U
— John Kennedy (@John Kennedy) 1614873115.0

The U.S. House of Representatives passed President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending bill early Saturday morning, 219-212 on a mostly party line vote.

The coronavirus relief portion of the bill includes a third round of stimulus checks, this time worth up to $1,400 per individual and dependent that will begin to phase out for individuals making $75,000 and married couples earning $150,000. The bill would expand unemployment insurance to include gig workers and workers who didn't qualify before the pandemic, increase those payments to $400 per week, and extend unemployment insurance through Aug. 29.

Additionally, the legislation allocates $20 billion for a national vaccine program, $50 billion for virus testing, $30 billion for emergency rental assistance, $10 billion for mortgage assistance, and a new fully refundable child tax credit for 2021 that would give families that qualify $3,000 per child ages 6 to 17 and $3,600 for children under 6 years old.

But there's more. Democrats included $350 billion in funding for state and local governments they say are facing budget shortfalls because of decreased revenue during the pandemic. Republicans charge that this spending is "wasteful" and that these governments were under economic duress before the pandemic. They say the coronavirus should not be used as an excuse to bail out irresponsible local politicians in mostly blue states.

An audit of the bill conducted by Forbes found other instances of earmarked spending unrelated to coronavirus aid. Included was $1.5 million earmarked for the Seaway International Bridge, which connects Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's home state of New York to Canada. There was also $140 million allocated for a rail project near House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home district in San Francisco. These two provisions were removed from the bill after the Senate parliamentarian ruled they were not acceptable under the budget reconciliation rules Senate Democrats will use to circumvent a filibuster attempt by Republicans.

Earmarked spending that was not struck from the bill includes:

  • $50 million for "family planning" nonprofit organizations like Planned Parenthood;
  • $852 million for civic volunteer organizations AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps Vista, and the National Senior Service Corps;
  • $470 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment of the Arts and the Humanities;
  • $128.5 billion to fund K-12 education that the CBO estimates will be paid out between 2022 and 2028, after the pandemic is over;
  • $86 billion for pension plans; $50 billion for FEMA;
  • $39.6 billion for colleges and universities;
  • And $1.5 billion for Amtrak, among other spending.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board estimated that of the $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan," only $825 billion was directly related to COVID-19 relief and the other $1 trillion was "expansions of progressive programs, pork, and unrelated policy changes."

Congressional Republicans are united in opposition to the coronavirus relief package, which they say is too costly, has too many bailouts, and funds too many progressive causes that have nothing to do with coronavirus recovery.

"The only way I know how to improve it is with a shredder. It's not even a coronavirus bill. Calling this a coronavirus bill is like calling Harvey Weinstein a feminist," Kennedy said. "It's chock-full of spending porn, billions of dollars to states and local governments that have seen their revenues go up. Billions of dollars to pension programs, billions of dollars to schools with no requirement that they open."

"It's an orgy of pork and using a so-called coronavirus bill as an excuse to fund pork is like looting after a natural disaster."

Public support for the coronavirus aid bill remains high and bipartisan, however. A Morning Consult poll found that 71% of voters, including 53% of Republican voters, supported the $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package when they were told it includes $1,400 in direct payments to some Americans, funding for schools and local governments, and extended unemployment benefits.

The poll questions did not address how much spending is unrelated to coronavirus relief.

Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson blocks new $1,200 stimulus checks, argues for more 'targeted' coronavirus relief



Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Friday blocked an effort by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to pass a new round of $1,200 stimulus checks to Americans, arguing for more "targeted" relief to help Americans struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hawley and Sanders had asked for the unanimous consent of the Senate to pass a bill providing another one-time payment of $1,200 to individuals earning less than $75,000, using the CARES Act stimulus bill Congress passed in March as a model for their legislation. Johnson supported that effort in March, but now says Congress cannot ignore the growing national debt and should work harder to ensure stimulus money has its intended effect.

Acknowledging the need for Congress to provide financial support to businesses and families in need "through no fault of their own," Johnson criticized the "shogun approach" of the proposed relief package and called for more "targeted" relief.

"One of the reasons we are $27.4 trillion in debt is we only speak about need, we only talk in terms of compassion — we all have compassion, we all want to fulfill those needs — we don't talk in numbers very often. We don't analyze the data. We don't take a look at what we did in the past and see, did it work? Or didn't it work?" Johnson said on the Senate floor.

"We will not have learned the lessons from our very hurried, very rushed, very massive, earlier relief packages. We're just going to do more of the same, another trillion dollars. It takes our debt from $27.4 trillion to $28.4 trillion in a couple months. With doing virtually no revisions, no improvements," he warned.

Sen. Ron Johnson: "One of the reasons we are currently $27.4 trillion in debt is we only speak about need, we only… https://t.co/ltAe1EeHhO
— The Hill (@The Hill)1608318697.0

The current stimulus package being considered by the Senate would cost about $900 billion, Axios reported. Johnson raised concerns about how Congress is "mortgaging our children's future."

He noted that the last round of "economic impact payments" to Americans cost about $275 billion and sent checks to 115 million households at a time when 25 million people were unemployed.

"That was about 4.5 [times] more households than the number of jobs lost," Johnson said, going on to explain that the Hawley-Sanders bill would provide payments to a number of households 12.6 times greater than the 9 million Americans currently unemployed.

"I think it's important to ask, well, how was that money spent? Was it really spent on essentials? Was this money really needed? Was there any hope of actually that money being stimulative to our economy?" Johnson asked.

He cited a study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued on Oct. 13, 2020, that surveyed American households and found that only 18% of the stimulus check funds was spent on essential items, 8% was spent on nonessential items, and 3% was donated for a total of 29%, which the study called the "marginal propensity to consume."

Most households, Johnson said, either saved the stimulus money or used it to pay off debt. The survey also asked respondents what they would do with another $1,500 check and only about 24% would spend or donate the money while the remaining 76% would use the funds for savings or debt repayment.

"I don't think you can take a look at these direct payments to individuals as stimulative," Johnson argued. "Obviously, 18%-24% is spent on essential items. We ought to figure out how to provide that money so people can spend it on essentials."

After Johnson concluded speaking, Hawley rose to respond, saying, "Nothing could be more targeted, no relief could be more important than relief for working people."

"What I'm proposing is what every senator has supported already," Hawley continued. "What I'm proposing will give working folks in my state and across the country a shot … at getting back up on their feet."

Sen. @HawleyMO responds to @SenRonJohnson objecting to his unanimous consent for $1,200 stimulus checks:"Working… https://t.co/eyShKrazpj
— Daily Caller (@Daily Caller)1608313267.0

This debate over direct stimulus payments is occurring under the backdrop of a potential government shutdown that will happen if Congress does not pass new spending legislation before midnight. Democrats and Republicans are negotiating on a continuing resolution to keep the government open, with the central conflict between the parties being what additional coronavirus relief should look like. One compromise currently under consideration is smaller $600 direct payments, half of what Hawley and Sanders have proposed, in addition to small business funding and an extended $300 federal unemployment benefit.

The Daily Caller reported that after Hawley finished speaking, he walked out of the Senate chamber and told reporters he would not allow a government funding bill to pass until he's assured there are direct payments to Americans included.

"I'm not going to allow a [continuing resolution] to go through until I know what's actually in the package," Hawley said. "It'd better include direct assistance at a substantial level."