Republicans Face Right-Wing Ire Over Infrastructure Support
Thirteen Republicans put country before party to get the bipartisan infrastructure bill through the House on Friday night. They’re now under fire from some of their party’s leaders.
Donald Trump said “RINOs in the House and Senate gave Biden and Democrats a victory,” even though Trump himself proposed a $1 trillion infrastructure plan when he was president. Right-wing representatives called their 13 colleagues “fraudulent RINOs” and “traitors.” House Minority Leader McCarthy, who had predicted the bill would fail, is taking heat for not killing the bill.
One of the 13, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), brushed off the criticism, telling CNN, “When [Americans] pay their taxes, they want basic things and roads and bridges and tunnels and ports, ensuring that they have clean water, ensuring that they have an adequate sewer system — these are the things that people expect when they pay taxes.”
The attacks from the right are nothing new. After Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) revived infrastructure talks with the White House over the summer, his office put out a document rebutting conservative “myths” about the bill, making clear that “it does not include any social spending or nontraditional infrastructure” and “is paid for.”
The bipartisan bill, which President Biden is expected to sign within days, is full of desperately needed spending that voters of both parties support. Its passage is a victory for all Americans and for two-party solutions, and it’s time for the false attacks to stop.