The Senate's $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which will come up for a full vote this week, is "a gateway to socialism" that Democrats are using to "pave the way" for Sen. Bernie Sanders' $3.5 trillion spending bill, Sen. Marsha Blackburn said on Newsmax Monday, while explaining why she cannot support it.
"In my opinion, it's not enough about infrastructure," the Tennessee Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" about the first bill. "(It) is too expensive. It's a down payment on the Green New Deal. Blackburn also called it "unbelievable that 9% of this bill goes to actual infrastructure. Yet this is being billed as an infrastructure bill."
Senators Sunday pushed the bipartisan infrastructure package closer to passage, and after that happens, they will immediately turn to the budget outline for the more partisan $3.5 trillion package of child care, elder care, and that many House Democrats say must pass before they'll vote for the infrastructure bill.
"I know some of my colleagues have worked very hard to try to create a bipartisan product," Blackburn said Monday. "We all wanted to get something on infrastructure that we could support. But when you look at $110 million being used for roads and bridges, and runways, rivers, and railways and $65 billion that is used for broadband, this is not something that I can support."
The first bill also carries $161 billion in new fees, which "equates to taxes, fees that are in this bill," said Blackburn. "You have a $256 billion deficit in this bill. It is not paid for so the burden to pay for this is going to come with taxes in Bernie's budget, and then it's going to be shoved off to our children and grandchildren."
Blackburn said she thinks a vote could come as early as Tuesday, as Democrats are "quite anxious."
She commended fellow Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty for exercising his right to use a filibuster while refusing to relent on the mandatory debate time.
"Some of the other of us that are on the conservative side (Ted) Cruz, (Mike) Lee and I had all filed amendments," said Blackburn. "I had 30 amendments that I filed to the bill. One of them was to take $1 billion dollars out of the $20 billion going to Amtrak and use it to build the wall on the southern border. Another was to put money in place restarting the keystone pipeline. Those are infrastructure projects that are ready to go. So let's fund them."
Blackburn said the bill will likely pass out of the Senate, as "some of us have worked to get rid of the worst parts of this bill."
But still, once the House gets hold of the bill, it will "make this legislation worse" before returning it to the Senate for a final vote, said Blackburn.
"What the House is going to do is try to wrap this into Bernie's budget," said Blackburn, noting that once the bipartisan bill, the spending bill, and money already spent on COVID relief are tallied, that comes to a total of about $7 trillion in the first six months of President Joe Biden's time in office.
"Our kids and grandkids are going to lose their opportunity to exercise the American dream to live out their hopes and their dreams," said Blackburn. "I'm going to fight this every step of the way."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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