Sen. Marco Rubio has derided President Joe Biden’s "Build Back Better" social spending plan as a "deranged, left-wing socialist agenda."
He also said it should be called "Build Back Socialist."
Biden on Thursday said he had secured a new $1.75 trillion framework for economic and climate change spending that could pass the Senate via reconciliation. He expressed confidence the legislation would win the backing of all wings of the Democratic Party.
The proposed massive spending plan began with a $3.5 trillion price tag that turned off moderates such as Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.
The Florida Republican released a video Thursday to slam Democrats and explain why the announced price tag really won't matter.
"The true cost of this is not what they say today," Rubio said. "It's going to be in the trillions of dollars. This plan, if it passes, it's going to fuel inflation, it's going to drive up our debt … but it's not just about the money. What it really is about is the programs. The programs codify socialism. It puts socialism into our law.
"This plan is not 'Build Back Better.' This is a plan to 'Build Back Socialist.'"
The senator pointed out that Biden did not run promoting the progressive policies he's pushing now because most Americans understand the agenda "is complete and utter lunacy."
"This is the agenda of the leftist base that now controls the agenda of the Democratic Party," Rubio said. "These are the people who think America is a terrible country, that America is a country with a shameful history, a racist and unjust system, and all these ideas [are] what they have long waited for. This is what they always wanted, for the opportunity to ram through their deranged left-wing socialist agenda.
"They don't care if they lose the majority. They want to ram it through now because they don't think that we'll ever have the votes to get rid of it once it’s in place."
Sitting before the American flag and Florida state flag, Rubio said the country is being threatened from within like never before.
"If this plan becomes the law, the damage that it's going to do to our country is hard to describe, impossible to exaggerate, and painful to think about," he said.
"Never, never in our lifetimes has our economy, our culture, our values, [and] our way of life faced such a grave risk from people in our own government. And if we don’t defeat this, the days of trauma and chaos that lie ahead are real."
Rubio said the social spending plan will be like "pouring gasoline onto a raging fire" amid all the issues Biden and Democrats have created or exacerbated.
"Let's be honest about what's going on in our country today," he said. "Inflation is raging. Prices on everything are out of control because the Democrats have already poured $2 trillion this year alone of your money into our economy, and they’ve screwed up the supply chain. Now they want to put in another $2 trillion.
"It is like pouring gasoline on to a raging fire — literally that’s what it is."
Rubio said the legislation is not a divide between conservative and liberal, or Republican and Democrats.
"You know what this is a divide between? Normal and crazy," he said. "Between common sense and utter lunacy. That's what the divide is."