Sen. Scott says 'tough to see' aftermath of deadly tornadoes in South Carolina
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott reacts to the tornadoes that ripped through his state and killed several people.
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Sen. Tim Scott voiced concern over the calls for more coronavirus relief funding while the phase three stimulus package had "not yet even made an impact."
“You’re hearing a lot of calls for trillions of dollars of additional spending. I hesitate because, literally, the $2.3 trillion, we haven’t even sent all that money to all the states, so we don’t know how those dollars would impact,” the South Carolina Republican told “America’s Newsroom.”
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Scott touted the amount of money already authorized to help businesses.
“That allows us to loan money from midsize and large businesses. That money can be leveraged for up to three and a half-trillion dollars. That is still happening. It’s still open but it’s not opened in robust ways yet. As that happens, we’ll have an understanding of what phase three has done for our economy,” Scott said.
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Scott's comments came after top congressional leaders have been toiling behind the scenes to craft a phase “3.5” measure. Senate Democrats blocked a GOP proposal to bolster small business assistance by a staggering $250 billion late last week.
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Scott said that once the impact of the phase three stimulus package has been realized, more funding could be considered.
“Until then, it’s a little premature for us to say we need another two trillion dollars or three trillion. What we do know from a surgical perspective is that small business resourcing has been very effective.”
Scott said that $182 billion was sent to 700,000 businesses to help employees “stay connected to their paychecks.” Scott also said that congressional Democrats blocked an additional $250 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program.
“That, we know, needs to be done immediately and we have time to factor in the impact of phase three over the next few days,” Scott said.
Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
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