Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy suggested Wednesday that and estimated $50 -$60 billion in leftover funds from the COVID-19 pandemic should be reclaimed on behalf of taxpayers.
Speaking to reporters inside the U.S. Capitol building May 10, McCarthy suggested that since the Covid pandemic is officially over, unspent funds earmarked for use during the emergency should be returned to the American taxpayers.
“Is it so draconian that we would pull back hard-working taxpayer’s money that we spent on COVID, that wasn’t spent?” he asked, adding that there is approximately $50 billion in unused funds appropriated for the pandemic. “They had two years to spend it, the pandemic is over.” McCarthy declared.
The pandemic is over. Yet there are more than $50 billion dollars in unspent COVID funds just sitting dormant.
That money belongs to taxpayers and should be reclaimed without delay.
This is exactly what @HouseGOP passed when we voted for a responsible debt limit increase. pic.twitter.com/a5snlOsGWS
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) May 10, 2023
In April, McCarthy took a similar stance in a speech on the House floor. “The American people are tired of politicians who use COVID as an excuse for more extreme inflationary spending. If the money was authorized to fight the pandemic, what was not spent during the pandemic should not be spent after the pandemic is over,” he argued, according to the New York Times.
Detractors state that $50-70 billion would do little to dent the $1.4 trillion federal deficit, further arguing that budget analysts had already accounted that a portion of taxpayer money taken for the pandemic would not likely be spent for pandemic-related relief programs, according to the New York Times. (RELATED: The Richest Hospitals Received Billions In Pandemic Aid-While Poorer Providers Struggled)
“If you’re genuinely worried about the fiscal future and the unsustainable nature of the federal budget, good, but this won’t solve any of those problems,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the president of the conservative American Action Forum and a former C.B.O. director, stated, according to the outlet. “This is a one-time reduction in spending that looks backward, not forward, and the real issues are in front of us.”