Republicans are zeroing in on potentially hundreds of billions in unspent funds from previous rescue packages in their criticisms of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief plan, The Hill reported. GOP lawmakers, who are in favor of a coronavirus measure that carries a smaller price tag, say the combination of unobligated funds and an improving economic outlook mean Democrats need to scale back their ambitions for the latest relief bill. “It is estimated that approximately $1 trillion in existing COVID-19 funding has yet to be spent,” said Rep. Jason Smith (Mo.), the top Republican on the House Budget Committee. “Before President Biden and congressional Democrats try to pass trillions more in spending, the American people need, at the very least, a thorough and accurate accounting of the trillions of dollars already approved.” The funding argument has popped up at both committee hearings and on the Senate floor. "Now we're to a point where the Biden administration is proposing $1.9 trillion of additional spending,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, said earlier this month. “We haven't spent the money we've allocated, nowhere near the money we've allocated." Biden, stung by the experience of a scaled-down stimulus package in 2009 that contributed to a slow recovery from the Great Recession, says it’s riskier to do a smaller relief bill than a big one, a position backed by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
