Former President Donald Trump slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday for allowing the passage of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, warning House and Senate Republicans to vote against the second part of President Biden’s big-spending agenda.
In a statement released by his leadership PAC “Save America,” the Republican former president reiterated his growing disdain for McConnell (R-Ky.), trashing him once again as a “Broken Old Crow.”
“Its actual cost is over $2 Trillion, but the bigger disaster is yet to come in the next, much larger version of the Green New Deal, which some people say will be $5 Trillion. This was all allowed by Mitch McConnell’s incompetence…,” Trump said, before claiming that “a couple Republican Senators” may vote in favor of the larger $1.75 trillion sweeping social package, also known as the Build Back Better Act.
Trump also slammed McConnell’s decision to give a two-month extension for the debt limit in October, which “allowed the Democrats to get their act together” and pass the infrastructure bill, which Trump called “a disaster for America” while comparing it to the Green New Deal.
Democratic House leadership is looking to put Biden’s $1.75 trillion BBB bill to a vote this week and pass it after Thanksgiving in the Senate through a parliamentary process called reconciliation that would require no GOP votes. Given Republican — and some moderate Democratic — pushback in recent months, it is unlikely any Republican in either chamber will vote for the bill.
But five House Democrats said they could not vote for the Biden bill until they see a Congressional Budget Office appraisal of its true costs and how that is paid for, as well as the projected effects on the economy.
Moderate Democratic Reps. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Ed Case of Hawaii, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Kathleen Rice of New York and Kurt Schrader of Oregon refused to vote in favor of the bill earlier this month, but did tentatively promise to back it in its current form if the score is revealed this week.
On the Senate side, Democrats have faced pushback from moderate Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona, who battled the bill’s topline for weeks. Most recently, Manchin has continued to push back the progressive fight to
include paid family leave in the legislation.
Since last week, the CBO
released initial estimates on eight parts of the bill. So far, the agency has found that one of those eight sections — if included in the final legislation — would increase the federal budget deficit by more than $150 billion.
The White House is
reportedly expecting the CBO to find that the bill will not pay for itself, according to the New York Times, and is telling lawmakers to “disregard” the full assessment when it is released.
On Wednesday, Trump claimed that if McConnell “wasn’t so stupid” and hadn’t agreed to the extension, “he could have stopped it all.”
“This is the Broken Old Crow’s fault,” Trump emphasized, saying Democrats were ready “to fold” with the debt ceiling in October.
“Use the Debt Ceiling like it should have been used, you Old Broken Crow, to do so would hurt our Country far less than this horrible Bill,” Trump said before issuing a warning to the entire GOP.
“Any Republican in the House or Senate who votes for this Bill will never ever get a Trump Endorsement. Thank you, and good luck!”
Following the passage of the infrastructure bill, Democratic leadership promised a vote on the Build Back Better Act for the week of Nov. 15. The CBO report is expected to be fully released by Friday, making a Saturday vote on the bill possible.