{"id":1212063,"date":"2022-01-12T17:35:05","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T22:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1212063"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:35:07","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T22:35:07","slug":"gop-lawmakers-ask-biden-why-trillions-in-covid-stimulus-somehow-havent-paid-for-covid-testing-kits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-lawmakers-ask-biden-why-trillions-in-covid-stimulus-somehow-havent-paid-for-covid-testing-kits\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Lawmakers Ask Biden Why Trillions In COVID Stimulus Somehow Haven\u2019t Paid For COVID Testing Kits"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgop-lawmakers-ask-biden-why-trillions-in-covid-stimulus-somehow-havent-paid-for-covid-testing-kits%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1212063&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Republican lawmakers are asking President Joe Biden why COVID-19 tests are not yet widely available in the United States \u2014 despite trillions in COVID-19 stimulus.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) \u2014 who serve as Republican leaders for multiple key committees \u2014 observed in a <a href=\"https:\/\/gop-waysandmeans.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Letter-to-President-Biden-on-COVID-19-Spending-1.5.22.pdf\">letter<\/a> to President Biden that Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has said there are $10 billion in unspent funds for COVID-19 tests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho made the decision to not exhaust these funds prior to the holiday season?\u201d they asked the commander-in-chief. \u201cWill the remaining funds be used for the federal response, or will some be disbursed to states?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They asked the Biden administration to explain its rejection of an October proposal that would have added more than 730 million at-home COVID tests to the market per month. \u201cWho was authorized to make this decision? Why were more proactive measures not taken to prepare for future variants, given the spread of the Delta variant over the summer?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the lawmakers noted that only 9% of Biden\u2019s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan\u2019s spending allocations \u201cactually went to public health spending to fight the virus,\u201d while the rest went to bailing out state governments and other social programs. They detailed the wasteful use of these funds \u2014 including New York spending $2.1 billion for \u201cdirect checks to illegal immigrants,\u201d Michigan giving $3,200 stimulus checks to prison inmates, and Chicago spending $31 million on a guaranteed income program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerican taxpayers deserve an honest and detailed accounting of where the $6 trillion in COVID-19 relief passed by Congress has been spent and how much remains,\u201d the lawmakers wrote. \u201cYour Administration has misused taxpayer dollars to spend on items unrelated to COVID-19 and repurposed funds for the southern border crisis of your own creation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe American people deserve transparency and answers to these important questions from their government before being asked to further foot the bill for another attempt by your White House to spend hundreds of billions or even trillions more in the name of \u2018combatting COVID-19.\u2019 A permanent pandemic narrative cannot be used by your office to avoid this responsibility,\u201d they continued.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the Biden administration has faced immense pressure over its apparent failure to make COVID-19 testing kits widely available. On Monday, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/why-is-it-you-guys-were-so-unprepared-peter-doocy-hammers-psaki-on-testing-failures\">asked<\/a> White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki why President Joe Biden\u2019s administration has been so \u201cunprepared\u201d for the uptick in demand for COVID-19 testing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI heard the president say, \u2018Google COVID tests near me.\u2019 So, as somebody isolating with COVID, I did that, and the appointments everywhere were completely jammed. So, why is it you guys were so unprepared for the need for testing after the holidays?\u201d Doocy asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, Peter, I\u2019m happy to see you back and well,\u201d Psaki replied. \u201cI would second say that there has been a massive surge in cases \u2014 as you know and were a part of \u2014 in D.C. and New York. And there has been an unprecedented \u2014 and in other parts of the country as well \u2014 there\u2019s been unprecedented demand for tests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo what we have done over the course of the last few weeks, and even before that, is the president quadrupled our testing capacity since the summer,\u201d Psaki continued. \u201cWe opened 20,000 sites across the country and we\u2019ve also opened additional federal sites, including one in D.C. only recently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Doocy pressed further: \u201cAt the rate you guys are going, these tests are not going to be available until spring. So will you admit that these free tests you guys promised are not going to be ready until after the Omicron surge?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Psaki responded that tests would be available \u201cvery soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican lawmakers are asking President Joe Biden why COVID-19 tests are not yet widely available in the United States \u2014 despite trillions in COVID-19 stimulus. Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) \u2014 who serve as Republican leaders for multiple key committees \u2014 observed in a letter to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1212063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1212063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1212063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1212063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1212063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}