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Sen. Ted Cruz touts RECOVERY Act as a comprehensive plan to end the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession

The bill includes tax credits, increased access to COVID-19 treatments and health care, and more, but Sen. Cruz doubts it will pass because of partisan politics
Credit: CBS19

TYLER, Texas — After six months of the coronavirus pandemic in Texas, there is still no federal plan to get us out of it. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) believes he has one, though he doubts it will pass.

He spoke to CBS19 on Friday about his RECOVERY Act. It is a bill he introduced this week that he thinks could be a comprehensive solution to the challenges facing the country.

“I think the number one priority in Congress, on the economic side, needs to be reopening the economy [It] needs to be helping people get back to work," Sen. Cruz said. "The way you do that is: you focus on the millions of small businesses that are really struggling, that are on the verge of going under.”

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 884,000 people filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week, the same number as the week prior. The number of people who received continued unemployment benefits rose slightly to nearly 13.4 million. Cruz said protecting small business is at the heart of the RECOVERY Act because they are the job creators of a healthy economy.

“And the small businesses that are right now just starting to open up their doors,” Sen. Cruz said. “And they’re hanging on the edge between going out of business and surviving, we need to be reducing the burdens on those small businesses and job creators, making it easier for them to survive, for them to hire their employees back, and for Texans to go back to work and be able to provide for their families.”

The RECOVERY ACT includes tax credits for businesses for buying personal protective equipment or for providing COVID-19 testing for their employees. 

“So that, when you go into work you can be tested and you can have confidence that you’re safe, that your family is safe,” Cruz said.

The bill would also fast-track any COVID-19 vaccines or treatments approved in other countries, expand telemedicine opportunities, and give more people access to health savings accounts.

“There’s no doubt we have to address both (the economy and the virus),” Cruz stated. “We are facing right now two, simultaneous crises.”

RELATED: Hopes fading for coronavirus deal as Congress returns

The RECOVERY Act covers 237 pages and includes tax cuts and a suspension of the payroll tax; liability protections for businesses; funding for programs that provide scholarships for private schools; and more. It does not include additional unemployment benefits or individual stimulus checks.

“You look at the economic devastation we’re facing, the only force powerful enough to turn it around is the American free enterprise system,” Cruz said. “There’s not enough money in Washington.

“You know, there are folks in Washington that just want to shovel trillions of dollars—and by the way, we don’t have trillions of dollars! It’s not like there’s some secret vault that they’re pulling it out of. That money is either being printed, which means it’s devaluing everybody’s money, or we’re borrowing it from China. Neither one of those are good outcomes.”

Despite his belief in his bill, Cruz said there is little chance of it becoming law. He mentioned that Democrats in the Senate stopped a different Republican relief bill earlier in the week.

RELATED: Senate GOP scaled-down virus relief bill fails, likely ends hope of aid before election

“What I think has happened is that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have decided that, politically, it benefits them to maximize the economic pain, that if millions of Americans on Election Day are home, and alone, and unemployed, and broke, and pissed off, that they think that benefits Joe Biden," Cruz said.

“Their position is, ‘hell, no,’ because they get a partisan benefit from it. And I think that really is violating the oath and obligation you have to the men and women you’re representing, and the men and women you’re supposed to be fighting for.”

Cruz introduced the bill on Tuesday. It has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.

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