Ten Republican senators released a joint statement Wednesday night railing against President Joe Biden’s offer to reach out for compromise on infrastructure talks as mere lip service to bipartisanship.
“We’ll be open to good ideas and good faith negotiations,” Biden said earlier Wednesday promoting his $2.3 trillion dollar infrastructure plan with an invitation to Republicans for a seat at the table in congressional-White House negotiations. “Changes are certain.”
Republicans who met with Biden on the last major package of legislation rammed through the Democrat-controlled legislature, however, called Biden’s comments hollow words in a joint statement. Those who signed include Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Mitt Romney of Utah, Rob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Todd Young of Indiana, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
“In good faith, our group of 10 Republicans worked together to draft a sixth COVID-19 relief package earlier this year,” they wrote, noting their initial offer featured all the “core” elements of Biden’s geared towards the coronavirus pandemic including vaccines and testing. “In addition, we later upped our offer to $650 billion to increase the size of the stimulus checks.”
They continued to blast White House dismissiveness of the brief negotiations after it staged an Oval Office photo op to appear bipartisan.
“The Administration roundly dismissed our effort as wholly inadequate in order to justify its go-it-alone strategy,” the added. “Fewer than 24 hours after our meeting in the Oval Office, the Senate Democratic Leader began the process of triggering reconciliation which precluded Republican participation and allowed for the package to pass without a single Republican vote.”
https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1379949458197217286?s=20
The behemoth $1.9 trillion COVID spending bill, passed through the congressional reconciliation process, ended to include billions entirely unrelated to the public health emergency and billions in blue state bailouts where Democratic governors have locked their residents down into economic suicide.
