Former President Donald Trump called on “RINO Republicans” to stop working on a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan, warning that they are “just being played by the Radical Left Democrats.”
“[T]hey will give you nothing!” Trump said in a statement issued late Friday.
The compromise package — which was announced by President Biden last month and is still being crafted into legislation — includes $579 billion in new spending, with $300 billion allocated for transportation, and $250 billion for broadband, power and water infrastructure.
While a bill could reach the Senate floor for a vote as soon as July 19, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will not bring it up in the House until the Senate passes a much larger bill — with a price tag of up $6 trillion — through the parliamentary gambit of reconciliation. That move would enable Senate Democrats to skirt the legislative filibuster and force their legislation through with just 51 votes.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he thought “there’s a decent chance” the bipartisan bill “may come together.”
“All I’ve said is, I would like for it to be paid for,” he told the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve added quite enough to the national debt.”
Republicans have insisted that the legislation not be paid for by undoing the 2017 tax cuts enacted by Trump, a point the 45th president emphasized Friday night.
“Very important that Senate Republicans not allow our hard-earned tax reductions to be terminated or amended in an upward trajectory in any way, shape, or form,” he said. “They should not be making deals on increasing taxes for the fake infrastructure proposals being put forward by Democrats, almost all of which goes to the ridiculous Green New Deal Marxist agenda.
“Keep the Trump Administrations [sic] tax cuts just where they are,” he added. “Do not allow tax increases. Thinking about it, I have never seen anything so easy to win politically.”
Democrats hope the larger bill will address so-called “nontraditional infrastructure” and include initiatives to tackle climate change and additional spending on social care programs.