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‘Chock-full of spending porn’: Sen. Kennedy slams Biden’s COVID relief bill

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Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy (R) slammed President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Wednesday, telling Fox News it is “chock-full of spending porn” unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This isn’t a coronavirus bill,” Kennedy said on the Fox News program “America’s Newsroom.” “This is a left-of-Lenin, neo-socialist wish list.”

“This is chock-full of spending porn,” he added, citing funding for transit projects, bridges, language preservation, and “billions for people who are in our country illegally.”

“I am for spending additional monies [sic] to combat the coronavirus,” said Kennedy, who’s on the Senate Budget Committee, “but this bill isn’t it.”

A large amount of the funding for the relief bill would not be spent until 2022 and after, one of the reasons the Louisiana Republican cited for his argument that Biden’s proposed COVID-19 relief bill is unrelated to the pandemic.

“The motto of the Biden administration seems to be: ‘We can’t spend too much,'” Kennedy said at another point in the interview, calling the administration’s approach “superficial” and “almost infantile.”

“Either that or the people advising President Biden have an opium habit,” he added.

“The objective is not to spend money–it’s not how much you spend, it’s what you spend it on,” Kennedy also said.

MORE ON SEN. KENNEDY: GOP, Dem senators confront Neera Tanden over ‘vicious’ personal attacks

Aspects of the bill have come under scrutiny from many Republicans and moderate Democrats, such as $1,400 stimulus checks for mixed-status families with undocumented immigrants; allowing Planned Parenthood to receive Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds designed to keep small businesses afloat; and roughly $600 million for additional emergency paid family leave for federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers, according to a Republican Study Committee memo released Monday.

One of the things that Kennedy considered mismanaged spending was the allocation of $70 billion for K-12 school funding. Only $4 billion of the $70 billion, according to Fox News, has been spent with hundreds of billions more proposed to be sent to schools in the relief bill, which is likely not to be fully spent until 2024.

Some moderate Democrats, such as Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), have indicated they might not support the required $15 minimum wage in the bill, which throws a wrench in the Democrats’ effort to pass it with the slimmest of majorities in the Senate. For the bill to pass, all 50 Democratic senators would need to vote in favor of it and have Vice President Kamala Harris exercise her power as the tie-breaking vote.

RELATED: Sen. Sinema breaks with Democrats on $15 minimum wage

On the other side of the aisle, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney (R) blasted the “clunker” relief bill for a third of its funds–$700 billion, according to a Congressional Budget Office report–not being spent until 2024 and the inclusion of unnecessary expenses in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Tuesday.

The bill, the Utah Republican argued, “would waste hundreds of billions of dollars, do nothing meaningful to get kids back to school, and enact policies that work against job creation.”

In response to the $15 minimum wage provision in the relief bill, Romney and Republican Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.) on Tuesday proposed raising the federal minimum wage to $10 instead, but with the caveat that businesses would be required to use the internet-based E-Verify system designed to prevent employers from hiring undocumented workers. However, it is unclear at this point if such a proposal will garner enough support.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), according to Fox News, says he expects the relief bill will be passed in the Senate by March 14.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

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House inquiry opened as to whether IRS is using artificial intelligence to invade Americans’ financial privacy

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An inquiry has been opened by the House Judiciary Committee as to whether the IRS is using artificial intelligence to invade Americans’ financial privacy. The inquiry comes after an agency employee was captured in an undercover tape suggesting there was a widespread surveillance operation underway that might not be constitutional, reports Just the News.

The inquiry was opened by Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., who sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen demanding documents, and answers as to how the agency is currently employing artificial intelligence to comb through bank records to look for possible tax cheats.

The House Judiciary Committee has been investigating why the FBI was obtaining Americans’ bank records, including those who partook in the January 6 Capitol riots, without using search warrants or subpoenas.

Jordan’s and Hageman’s letter said lawmakers have evidence and reason to believe that the IRS and Department of Justice (DOJ) are actively monitoring millions of Americans’ private transactions, bank accounts, and related financial information—without any legal process—using the AI-powered system.

“This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with federal law enforcement, into Americans’ private financial records raises serious doubts about the IRS’s—and the federal government’s—respect for Americans’ fundamental civil liberties,” the letter said.

“So one of the things that I have learned since I’ve been in Congress is that there are quite a few people in government who do not recognize our constitutional protections,” Hageman told Just the News. “They’ve kind of forgotten or at least ignored our Bill of Rights.”

Just the News also reported that the Treasury Department has since acknowledged it has “implemented an enhanced process using AI to mitigate check fraud in near real-time by strengthening and expediting processes to recover potentially fraudulent payments from financial institutions’ since late 2022.”

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