McConnell Says Unlikely to Back Biden’s Infrastructure Plan, Slams Tax Hikes

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to the media after the Republican leaders' weekly lunch at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 23, 2021. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday signaled he is unlikely to support President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure package, saying he would not back spending or “massive” tax hikes that could balloon the national debt.

Echoing remarks he made last week, McConnell said in a statement that Biden’s infrastructure plan will likely be a “Trojan horse” that includes other Democratic priorities such as tax hikes to fund the plan.

“The administration’s non-infrastructure ‘infrastructure bill’ looks like another Trojan horse for far-left demands. Rolling back Right to Work laws. Imposing the biggest new tax hikes in a generation—killing jobs and slowing wage growth when workers need a fast recovery,” he said on Twitter.

Amid growing criticism of Biden’s plan by fellow caucus members, McConnell decried the package and the proposals to fund it by increasing the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from the current 21 percent, calling the bill a “major missed opportunity” for funding serious infrastructure developments.

“Our nation could use a serious, targeted infrastructure plan. There would be bipartisan support for a smart proposal. Unfortunately, the latest liberal wish-list the White House has decided to label ‘infrastructure’ is a major missed opportunity by this Administration,” McConnell said.

“My advice to the Administration: If you want to do an infrastructure bill, let’s do an infrastructure bill. Before the pandemic, we had the best economy in 50 years. We should not raise taxes under the guise of an infrastructure bill and send our economy in the wrong direction.”

The president unveiled his infrastructure plan during a speech in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, saying that the core of the package is to modernize transportation infrastructure. The White House earlier released a fact sheet detailing the first of a two-part plan that Biden wants to pass through Congress in the coming months.

Biden is expected to lay out a separate plan later this month that addresses child and health care.

On Wednesday morning, McConnell told reporters in Erlanger, Kentucky, that if Biden’s funding plan is “going to have massive tax increases and trillions more added to the national debt, it’s not likely” he would back it.

The Republican leader also said that the president called him on Tuesday to discuss the infrastructure plan.

McConnell in a statement on Wednesday criticized the package’s spending priorities, accusing Biden of siding with a “far-left dogma” over American families.

“Democrats keep trying to use important issues as smokescreens for unrelated agendas,” he said. “Unfortunately, less than 6% of this massive White House proposal would go to roads and bridges. It would spend more on electric cars than on roads, bridges, ports, airports, and waterways combined.”

“It contains sweeping far-left priorities like attacking blue-collar Americans’ Right to Work protections, a huge factor to Big Labor bosses. Every time that far-left dogma closes with the interests of American families, today’s Democrats pick the dogma,” he added.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told NTD News last week that “absolute socialism” is just around the corner in the United States if the proposed infrastructure bill passes Congress.

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Tax hikes imposed by the Biden administration to fund the package would “hurt the whole country,” Norman said, noting that a recession followed when former President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 created a temporary 10 percent income tax surcharge on both individuals and corporations.

Democrats in Congress have signaled a willingness to go it alone if they are blocked by Republicans on the infrastructure package, given their current majorities in both houses.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said last month that he plans to attempt passing the infrastructure bill by using a budget process to cut out Republicans, even though several Democrat senators have said they won’t support utilizing the method to bypass a filibuster.