GOP leaders use $3.5T spending bill to portray Democrats as socialists
Sen. Mitch McConnell called the spending bill 'a Trojan Horse for permanent socialism'
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Republican Party leaders are alleging that Democrats are using the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill to implement a socialist agenda.
"Democrats want to spend trillions and trillions of your money to create programs that will never expire and make millions of Americans dependent on the federal government — from cradle to grave," tweeted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. on Monday. "It’s big-government socialism, plain and simple."
McCarthy echoed the message of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who alleged on the House floor last week that the budget plan is "an effort to exploit this terrible but temporary pandemic as a Trojan Horse for permanent socialism."
McCarthy also tweeted audio in which he claimed the spending bill would end up costing more than $5 trillion because the bill institutes "programs that will never go away."
The congressman made similar claims Monday on "America's Newsroom."
"This will transform government as we know it," he said. "It was interesting that Speaker Pelosi there didn't want to talk about the numbers, to say that is paid for. It's paid for by putting a debt onto the next generation of Americans. That's how it's paid for."
BIDEN TEAM RIPPED AS ‘ECONOMICALLY ILLITERATE’ FOR CLAIM BUILD BACK BETTER ‘COSTS ZERO DOLLARS’
BIDEN TEAM RIPPED AS ‘ECONOMICALLY ILLITERATE’ FOR CLAIM BUILD BACK BETTER ‘COSTS ZERO DOLLARS’
President Biden drew criticism for tweeting Saturday that his "Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars" and "adds zero dollars to the national debt." In addition to Republicans coming out against the spending plan, moderate Democrats, such as Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., have also raised concerns about the bill.
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Socialism is increasingly appealing to Democratic voters, according to a recent Fox News poll. Self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, has championed the spending bill as a means by which to address wealth inequality.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the measure as providing badly needed programs.
"We’re working to cut the skyrocketing cost of childcare, something that is preventing millions of women — or hundreds of thousands of women at least, perhaps, from going back into the workforce," she said.
"And we’re working to take on the devastating impacts of climate change that we’re already seeing do terrible damage to our economy and national security."