GOP mayors and governors line up for federal help -- despite Republican senators' 'blue state bailout' talk

For months, congressional Republicans have attacked plans to provide federal assistance to state and local governments as "blue state bailouts."

However, Republican governors and mayors have been sending a very different message and have been telling the Biden administration that they would welcome any help they can get.

As the Washington Post reports, Republicans in charge of states and cities have found that they're dealing with massive potential cuts to public services after seeing their states' revenues plummet due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"I don't know of any city that hasn't been affected negatively," Republican Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt explained to the Post. "Some may be worse off than others. But we have all had to make cuts."

Jerry Dyer, the Republican mayor of Fresno, California, similarly told the Post that his city could use an injection of federal relief to make up for budget shortfalls.

"It's not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue," he said. "It's a public health issue. It's an economic issue. And it's a public safety issue."

Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice earlier this month publicly begged for the federal government to help out states and he said that it didn't matter if the government wasted some funds because the need was so great.

"If we throw away some money right now, so what?" Justice said during an interview with CNN. "People really, really hurting. We've got to move!"

President Joe Biden's proposed pandemic relief package offers $350 billion to state and local governments struggling to meet their budgetary obligations.