Republican Senators Speak Out Against Biden’s Massive $2T Spending Bill

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Republican senators are speaking out against Biden’s plan to do a massive $2 Trillion infrastructure spending that “does not focus on infrastructure.”

Biden outlined his proposal last Wednesday for a massive $2 Trillion spending bill and Senate Republicans voiced out their concerns as they line up against the bill that they labeled as “far cry” from infrastructure. 

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The opposition from the Republican party is coming even from moderates who tried to work with Biden on the COVID-19 stimulus bill. This fact makes it highly likely for Democrats to invoke budget reconciliation yet again if they want to pass what Biden called as “the largest American jobs investment since World War II.”

Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio said on Wednesday that he supports improving America’s aging roads, bridges, ports, and other infrastructure. “And we can do so in a bipartisan way.” However, he said, Biden’s plan is far too expensive and does not focus on infrastructure, as the White House is framing it. 

Portman said, “At its core, the president’s plan calls for a $620 billion investment in transportation infrastructure. However, the total soars to $3 trillion with its inclusion of these broad policy priorities that are a far cry away from what we’ve ever defined as infrastructure,” Portman added that the Biden Administration’s plan redefines infrastructure to include hundreds of billions of dollars of spending on priorities like health care, workforce development, and research and development.”

Portman is only one of the 10 Republicans who traveled to the White House in February to meet with Biden on a potential bipartisan coronavirus stimulus — only to be dismissed as Democrats refused to compromise on any element of the bill.

Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia also made statements saying that Biden’s infrastructure proposal is a nonstarter.

Capito said, “While the president unveiled a partisan proposal that goes far beyond what constitutes as infrastructure, the Senate continues negotiations between members of both parties.”

She also stated that Biden’s so-called “jobs” proposal is a clear attempt to transform he economy “by advancing progressive priorities in an unprecedented way.”

Capito also added, “The proposal would aggressively drive down the use of traditional energy resources and eliminate good-paying jobs in West Virginia and across the country. Perhaps worst of all, it would burden the American economy with tax increases as our country attempts to recover from economic hardship.”

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky) also vocally opposed Biden’s plan.

McConnell raised concerns about Biden’s continued huge spending bills as the country emerges from a pandemic on which it has already spend vast sums of money. 

“I am concerned in the level of our national debt. We’ve reached a critical point here. And I hope we’re not beginning to engage in a habit of any time we want to do something, call it a national emergency and run up the national debt,” McConnell said in Kentucky. 

“Twenty-seven trillion dollars. The same size as our economy. For the first time since World War II,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the White House defended the planned expenditure by stating that the plan will be paid for by corporate tax hikes. 

In a separate statement, McConnell also accused Biden of selling an “infrastructure” bill which is actually a “Trojan horse” for other priorities. 

McConnell said, “This plan is not about rebuilding America’s backbone. Less than 6% of this massive proposal goes to roads and bridges. It would spend more money just on electric cars than on America’s roads, bridges, ports, airports, and waterways combined.”

Indeed, according to the summary of the American Jobs Plan by the White House, it says out of the total $2.2 trillion in the plan, it will spend “$115 billion to modernize the bridges, highways, roads, and main streets that are in most critical need of repair.”

McConnell added that the bill would also contain “sweeping far-left priorities” such as “attacking blue-collar Americans’ Right to Work protections, a huge favor to Big Labor bosses. Every time that far-left dogma clashes with the interests of American families, today’s Democrats pick the dogma.”

Meanwhile, the White House is framing its proposal which was called as the “American Jobs Plan” more as an investment. However, it is in a very broad definition of infrastructure.

In his remarks unveiling the plan in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Biden said, “It’s time to build our economy from the bottom-up and the middle-out, not the top-down.” Biden added, “And this time when we rebuild the middle class, we’re going to bring everybody along regardless of your background, your color, your religion, where everybody gets to come along.” 

According to the spending breakdown of White House’s plan, $620 billion would be for roads, bridges and ports; $400 billion for elderly home care; $580 billion on job training, R&D and clean energy; and $650 billion on the electric grid, broadband and water systems. 

In the $620 billion for roads bridges and ports, the White House lumps in $174 billion for electric vehicles — more than it is spending on any other individual item in that category. 

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