Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Monday demanded assurances from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that the bipartisan infrastructure bill is not held “hostage” to reconciliation with “Green New Deal socialism.”
“The President has appropriately delinked a potential bipartisan infrastructure bill from the massive unrelated tax-and-spend plans that Democrats want to pursue on a partisan basis,” McConnell explains in a press release. “Now I am calling on President Biden to engage Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi and make sure they follow his lead.”
“Unless Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi walk-back their threats that they will refuse to send the president a bipartisan infrastructure bill unless they also separately pass trillions of dollars for unrelated tax hikes, wasteful spending, and Green New Deal socialism,” McConnell continued, “then President Biden’s walk-back of his veto threat would be a hollow gesture.”
“Republicans have been negotiating in bipartisan good faith to meet the real infrastructure needs of our nation. The President cannot let congressional Democrats hold a bipartisan bill hostage over a separate and partisan process,” McConnell concluded.
McConnell’s statement comes as Senate Republicans told Breitbart News Friday Biden’s negotiating strategy may “blow up” both the bipartisan infrastructure deal and the more partisan infrastructure reconciliation bill.
Both Biden and Pelosi said Thursday they would not support a bipartisan infrastructure proposal unless Congress passes a far-left reconciliation package, full of global warming provisions and tax hikes.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) stated Thursday after the deal was agreed upon that “This bipartisan deal, it’s not enough. It doesn’t meet the moment.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) also explained Thursday he was “not willing to support throwing climate overboard.”
In a separate tweet that has since been deleted, Wyden explained, “he wants an assurance the bipartisan package tied to any larger reconciliation bill.”
With the probability Democrats will not agree on a bipartisan deal or if the deal fails due to opposition on either side of the aisle, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is creating a safety valve in which radical items may be included by slipping them in a reconciliation package that is filibuster-proof.
The chances of the bipartisan deal passing the Senate with radical Democrats supporting the measure along with Senate Republicans, is unknown. It is also unknown if the House, slimly controlled by the Democrats, will also approve a Senate version of the legislation if passed.
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