(CNSNews.com) – Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on Sunday he’s concerned about both infrastructure bills now advancing in the U.S. Senate, including the bipartisan bill, which is keeping the Senate in session as the House begins its extended August recess:
“Well, Chuck Schumer has said, before the August recess, he wants to pass two bills through Congress,” Barrasso told “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo:
One is the true infrastructure bipartisan bill that people are working on. We still haven’t seen it. It’s going to be a big piece of legislation.
But more concerning to me, Maria, is this massive spending bill, the liberal wish list. It is the largest spending bill in the history of the United States. And if this passes, people are going to suffer significantly. They’re going to feel the heavy weight of the taxes, the ongoing inflation problems, and the debt.
It is going to chew away, eat at people’s paychecks. It’s going to eat at their savings. People are already paying, because of inflation, higher dollars for gas, housing, you name it.
And, Maria, this is spending on top of the $6 trillion already spent in coronavirus relief. Plus, it is loaded with liberal policies, including amnesty for illegal immigrants. It also includes a civilian climate corps. They want to hire a million people who would, many, be protesters against things like the Keystone XL pipeline.
Look, Chuck Schumer says nobody goes home for August recess until these two things pass. I say I’m willing to stay in Washington until hell freezes over if I can stop these bad things happening to our country.
Barrasso said the bipartisan bill is about 2,700 pages. “Bits and pieces are starting to come out. People are seeing a little bit of it. We’re looking forward to seeing the whole thing,” he said.
“It really is supposed to focus on roads, bridges, ports, airports, broadband, things that people need and they want, and there is value in it. Republicans want to make sure that it’s actually paid for. And we want to read it. This can’t be the old Nancy Pelosi first you have to pass it, then you get to find out what’s in it.
“The best way to pay for this is to repurpose COVID relief funds that have already been committed, but not yet spent.”
Barrasso said his concerns about the bipartisan bill, beyond the pay-fors, include the shift away from fossil fuel and using California as the energy model for the nation.
But the “biggest problem,” he said, is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s intention to tie passage of the bipartisan bill to passage of a much larger “human” infrastructure bill that all Republicans oppose.
You can’t have one without the other, Pelosi has said.
The second infrastructure bill is “reckless tax and spending,” with a price tag that will be much higher than currently projected $3.5 trillion, Barrasso said:
Everything I have read, Maria, it looks like it’s going to be much higher than what the Democrats are admitting to, at a time that we just can’t afford it.
You look at the runaway inflation we’re living in. Now to put more spending on top of that makes it a lot worse. But Nancy Pelosi said, look, not a penny for roads or bridges or ports or airports unless and until the Senate passes this much bigger, as you say, $5 trillion bill.
This wasn’t a negotiation with Nancy Pelosi. This was a hijacking. And this would be terrible for the country, for the economy. And she’s not just a hijacker. She is also an arsonist, because this is putting additional jet fuel on the flames of inflation. And we know who’s going to be hurt by this.
The people that are going to suffer under this are people living on a fixed income. They are our seniors. They are people working getting by paycheck to paycheck. All Americans are going to pay for this through inflation, through taxes.
Joe Biden says, well, we’re only going to raise taxes on businesses and some people making a lot of money. You cannot fund something this expensive without everybody in America getting hit.