https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jun/28/mitch-mcconnell-rebukes-democrats-holding-infrastr/
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lambasted Democrats’ congressional leaders Monday for holding a bipartisan infrastructure plan “hostage” until a big-spending social bill passes along party lines, as President Biden prepared to promote his rickety deal in the Midwest.
Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, rebuked Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, for linking the infrastructure deal to other costly Democratic priorities.
Mr. Biden did the same last week but backed down from a veto threat over the weekend after objections from Republican senators who had agreed to the infrastructure deal.
The threats by Democratic leaders amount to extortion and a breach of the “bipartisan good faith” that Republican lawmakers have experienced so far, Mr. McConnell said in a statement.
“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, then President Biden‘s walk-back of his veto threat would be a hollow gesture,” Mr. McConnell said. “The president cannot let congressional Democrats hold a bipartisan bill hostage over a separate and partisan process.”
The Senate Republican leader gave his warning before Mr. Biden took his first trip to sell the tentative $1.2 trillion deal to voters. The president is scheduled to travel to Lacrosse, Wisconsin, on Tuesday to promote the package.
Mr. Biden hopes to get the deal back on track by promoting its expected economic benefits. He called it the largest investment in transportation in nearly a century and predicted it would create 1 million jobs.
An internal White House document obtained by The Associated Press said the spending plan is four times the size of the Obama administration’s stimulus deal approved in response to the Great Recession and the biggest infrastructure package since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. ..