OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The United States Senate is getting prepared to vote on a massive $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package and Donald Trump is furious.
The 45th President of the United States raged against the deal in an email to supporters on Saturday, threatening to withhold endorsements for Republicans who vote for it.
“Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill is a disgrace. If Mitch McConnell was smart, which we’ve seen no evidence of, he would use the debt ceiling card to negotiate a good infrastructure package,” he said in the email.
“This is a 2,700 page bill that no one could have possibly read—they would have needed to take speed reading courses. It is a gift to the Democrat Party, compliments of Mitch McConnell and some RINOs, who have no idea what they are doing. There is very little on infrastructure in all of those pages. Instead, they track your driving so they can tax you. It is Joe Biden’s form of a gas tax but far bigger, far higher and, mark my words, far worse. They want to track you everywhere you go and watch everything you do!
“Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill will be used against the Republican Party in the upcoming elections in 2022 and 2024. It will be very hard for me to endorse anyone foolish enough to vote in favor of this deal,” Trump said.
“The good news is that the progressive wing in the Democrat Party will lose all credibility with this approval. Additionally, Kevin McCarthy and Republican House members seem to be against the bill. If it can’t be killed in the Senate, maybe it dies in the House!
“Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats understand that this is the way to get the horrendous $3.5 trillion, actually $5 trillion, Green New Deal bill done in the House. Mitch is playing right into Nancy’s hands, not to mention the fact Chuck Schumer is already going around saying this is a big victory for the Democrats. Whether it’s the House or the Senate, think twice before you approve this terrible deal. Republicans should wait until after the Midterms when they will gain all the strength they’ll need to make a good deal, but remember, you already have the card, it’s called the debt ceiling, which the Democrats threatened us with constantly,” he said.
The deal was stalled this week when Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty put a stop to Senate Majority Leader and New York Sen. Charles Schumer’s efforts to fast track it.
“Earlier this afternoon, the Congressional Budget Office released its long-awaited score for this infrastructure bill. While we’ve heard for weeks that it would be paid for, it’s not,” he said.
“It didn’t just come up short, it came up a quarter of a trillion dollars short. The CBO indicated this bill will increase the deficit by at least $256 billion dollars when it was supposed to break even,” the senator said.
“Despite this news, I was asked to consent to expedite the process and pass it. I could not, in good conscience, allow that to happen at this hour—especially when the objective of the majority is to hurry up and pass this bill so that they can move quickly to their $3.5 trillion tax-and-spend spree designed to implement the Green New Deal and increase Americans’ dependence on the government so I objected,” he said.
But Sen. Schumer plans to vote again on the package on Saturday so that the Senate can send it to the House.
“We very much want to finish this important bill, so we will reconvene Saturday at noon to vote [to overcome a filibuster] and then we will follow regular order to finish the bill,” he said.
