Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne says she was shocked by President Trump’s announcement that all pandemic relief negotiations were suspended until after the election.
Axne says she was on a conference call with House Democrats, being briefed about the latest round of negotiations, when the president sent his tweet.
“Deciding that it was more important for him to push something off until after the Election instead of helping the American people put food on the table, make sure that our health care providers had the PPE that they needed and get our economy back up and running,” Axne says.
Trump has since backtracked, indicating that before November 3 he’d sign bills providing relief to businesses and sending another 12-hundred dollar stimulus check to most Americans.
Republican David Young is the former third district congressman who is running against Axne this year and he blames Democrats in the House for the impasse. But Young says in addition to Trump’s latest list, the package should include money for the child care industry as well as liability protections to shield small businesses from Covid-related lawsuits.
“There’s a package that lingering and almost dead probably in Washington, D.C. because of dysfunction that could be used right now,” he says, “…to help Iowans get out of this suffering.”
Young and Axne debated late Wednesday afternoon on WHO Television.