Tuberville on federal coronavirus relief package: ‘Typical government,’ ‘Just throw money at stuff’ — Says some funding elements ‘criminal’

The coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly taken a toll on the American economy, which has led to the federal government at the behest of Congress and the Trump White House taking extraordinary measures.

On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a historic $2 trillion coronavirus relief package that was previously negotiated and passed by the U.S. Senate with a 96-0 vote.

Former Auburn University head football coach Tommy Tuberville, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, acknowledged the severity of the situation but questioned where money was being spent and other funding for seemingly unrelated items that it included.

“It’s typical — typical government,” he said during an interview that aired on Thursday’s broadcast of “The Jeff Poor Show” on Huntsville’s WVNN. “We just throw money at stuff. We got a lot of people that are hurting. You know, I saw a number where President Trump said 65% of the country is actually working. And you’ve got 35% of the people who aren’t. And most of those are small businesses, and they need to be taken care of. Why don’t we just go after that? Why don’t we give loans and grants to the businesses and say pay your employees their normal pay? You don’t have to be open, but pay your normal pay.”

Tuberville mentioned some reported elements of the relief package, including $75 million for public broadcasting and $35 million for computers in congressional offices, as well as daycare, health and travel.

“It’s hilarious what they put in these bills,” he said. “It’s really criminal. That’s what it is because it is our money that they’re spending. They’re just taking advantage of a crucial situation where people need help. We need to be helping the people. We don’t need to be helping the Kennedy Center for Fine Arts for $25 million. It’s gotten to be comical what these people take advantage of a crisis. Nancy Pelosi, what she was trying to put in there — that was criminal. If they put any of that in there, we should run all of them out. It was awful.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.