Former US President Donald Trump has issued a statement calling on House and Senate Republicans to vehemently oppose the $1 trillion infrastructure deal, which he called a "disgrace". He slammed GOP lawmakers planning to support the deal as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and specifically targeted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over his readiness to back the infrastructure bill instead of fighting it using the "debt ceiling" limits.
The ex-POTUS went on to warn the rest of the Republicans of the possible consequences of backing the infrastructure package, devised by the Democrats and US President Joe Biden. Trump claimed that not only will it raise taxes for Americans, but it will also prevent him from endorsing the 2022 Republican candidates who supported the bill's passage. The ex-president went on to claim that the GOP would be able to negotiate a better infrastructure deal at a later date.
"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", Trump wrote in his statement.
Trump's warning comes just hours ahead of the planned vote on concluding the debate on the $1 trillion bill. A total of 67 Senators backed the legislation, thus allowing it to move towards a vote on passage, which requires a simple majority.
Republicans Divided
It turns out that the smaller $1 trillion bill, which, unlike its bigger $3.5 trillion "brother", enjoys some support from the GOP, won't work the way the Democrats said it would. A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis determined that the bill's implementation will add $256 billion to the federal deficit. At the same time, the GOP lawmakers who promoted the bill among their fellow party members claimed that the positive effect of the infrastructure reform will pay off its costs completely.
The news that this would not be the case according to the CBO's assessment made several Republicans switch sides and refuse to back the bill further. Among them is Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, who strongly opposed an attempt by the chamber's majority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, to schedule a series of amendments late on Thursday that would have allowed for the swift passage of the infrastructure bill by 6 August.
"The conversation around the bill all along is that this would be an infrastructure package that would be paid for — a hard infrastructure package that would be paid for. We certainly found out that there was a miss. [...] It didn’t just miss by a little, it missed by a lot. A quarter of a trillion dollars is a significant amount of money despite what’s been happening up there in Washington", Hagerty said.
The GOP senator argued that if he had backed those amendments and helped the infrastructure bill pass, then the Democrats would have used what they had achieved to pass the remainder of their desired reform, the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, without GOP consent if necessary. The Democrats could use the budget reconciliation mechanism, thereby subverting Republican attempts to filibuster the legislation.
Another Republican senator, Ted Cruz, expressed similar concern, while adding that GOP lawmakers supporting the infrastructure bill would be "complicit in the ticking inflation bomb".
"This bill is a mistake. It continues spending trillions of dollars we don’t have and it is the gateway drug to the Democrats’ reckless tax-and-spend bill next week, trying to spend another $3.5 trillion", Cruz said.
Those Republicans who supported the bill believed that even despite being the Democrats' project - potentially giving them points ahead of the 2022 and 2024 electoral cycles - the infrastructure reform might be in the interest of the constituencies they are representing. Senator Mitt Romney further argued that the Democrats could easily pass the bill despite a GOP filibuster, and it would be better for the Republican Party to be on board with the discussions on the legislation's parameters instead.