Schumer, Collins spar over 2009 stimulus vote

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) are trading shots over the 2009 stimulus bill — the latest example of bad blood between the two. 

Collins knocked Schumer on Wednesday, after the Democratic leader said during a CNN interview on Tuesday night that it was a “mistake” to scale down the Obama-era bill to win over Collins’s vote. 

“I thought that Leader Schumer’s comments were bizarre. He voted for the same package that I did. President Obama urged me to vote for a stimulus bill that passed that year, and indeed called me afterwards to thank me for my vote. I was one of only three Republicans who joined the Democrats and gave President Obama this victory during the financial meltdown,” Collins told reporters.

Schumer was asked during the CNN interview if more could have been done to win over Republicans who met with Biden earlier this year to discuss coronavirus relief. Collins led that effort, with the group proposing a roughly $600 billion framework. 

Schumer, pointing to negotiations during the Great Recession, said that would have been a mistake.

“You know, we made a big mistake in 2009 and ’10. Susan Collins was part of that mistake. We cut back on the stimulus dramatically and we stayed in recession for five years,” Schumer said. 

Collins was one of three GOP senators who voted for the $787 billion package in 2009 and is the only one of that group still in the Senate. 

The Senate passed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Saturday on a party-line vote. A few GOP amendments were adopted into the bill, but Democrats spent hours voting down most of the party’s potential amendments. 

Collins, speaking to reporters Wednesday, noted that the partisan vote was a break from the previous coronavirus bill that passed Congress last year. 

“He showed that he had absolutely no interest in trying to negotiate a bipartisan agreement despite our very sincere effort to put forward an initial package that could serve as the basis for negotiation,” Collins said. “As soon as Chuck Schumer takes over as Majority Leader, we pass a highly partisan bill, much of which has nothing to do with fighting this terrible pandemic.” 

Though Schumer was able to pass the coronavirus bill with only a simple majority, he and President Biden will need the support of at least 10 GOP senators to get most legislation through the Senate. 

Collins, as one of the most moderate members of the Senate GOP caucus, will be a prime vote Schumer needs to win over unless Democrats are able to get the votes to nix the filibuster. 

Collins previously served in the Senate with Biden and noted Wednesday that the two have a good working relationship.  

“I am going to continue to work with President Biden and his administration, I think. although I’m obviously more conservative than the president, we have a lot of goals in common and the infrastructure package is certainly one of them. So I look forward to continuing to work with this administration, and I just hope that Senator Schumer does not continue to be an obstacle to bipartisanship,” Collins said. 

It’s hardly the first example of tension between Collins and Schumer. 

Collins indicated in 2019 that she believed Schumer had previously encouraged Democrats not to partner with her on legislation in order to hurt her reelection chances.   

And Collins, on Wednesday, pointed to a massive, but failed, effort by Democrats to unseat her during the 2020 election.  

“For Chuck Schumer … to some how criticize me for taking the same position that he did, is simply bizarre. And I think it reflects regrettably his inability to accept the fact that despite pouring $100 million into defeating me, the people of Maine, said, no. And reelected me to a historic term,” Collins said.