Cruz rips GOP colleagues who are ‘complicit’ with Biden spending agenda

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is taking shots at Republican colleagues who are backing a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, accusing them of being “complicit” in advancing President Biden’s massive spending agenda and falling into a Democratic trap.

“I don’t think Republicans should be complicit in the ticking inflation bomb we’re facing,” he said.

Cruz on Thursday urged fellow Senate Republicans to step back from the bill, which he warned would exacerbate inflation.

“This bill is a mistake. It continues spending trillions of dollars we don’t have and it is the gateway drug to the Democrats’ reckless tax-and-spend bill next week, trying to spend another $3.5 trillion,” Cruz told The Hill, referring to Democrats’ plans to pass a budget resolution in the next few days to set up a path to pass another major spending package under special reconciliation rules to bypass a GOP filibuster.

“I think it’s a mistake for the Republicans who are supporting this to play any part in the reckless tax and spending binge being pushed by the Democrats,” he added. “We’re seeing inflation rising across the country. We’re seeing the cost of food going up, the cost of gas going up, the cost of lumber going up, the cost of homes going up.”

Cruz took to the Senate floor shortly after making those comments to further slam the so-called Democratic trap.

“The Democrats in seven months are spending more than double what we spent to win World War II. This is reckless and it’s unprecedented. As Admiral Ackbar said in Star Wars, ‘It’s a trap.’ This is a trap,” he said, referring to a famous scene from the movie “Return of the Jedi.”

Senate infrastructure bill. https://t.co/uy0EfqJI5P

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 5, 2021

Cruz seized on a cost analysis released by the Congressional Budget Office earlier Thursday projecting that the bipartisan infrastructure package will add $256 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years. 

“We’re told that this bill would in part be paid for with $205 billion in repurposed COVID relief funds, but when the bill text was released, magically those funds weren’t there,” he said. “It became apparent instead that only about $50 billion in COVID funds are being used to help pay for this bill.”

“Some have claimed that the bill is paid for, but by any measure the pay-fors are, quite simply, gimmicks,” he added. “This is a bait and switch, and the bill is not paid for like we were promised.”

Cruz questioned his Republican colleagues’ thinking behind their decisions to back the bipartisan spending bill when they know that Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to pass in the fall a $3.5 trillion package packed with elements of President Biden’s agenda left out of the pending infrastructure bill. 

“Suppose this so-called bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was being offered in exchange for the Democrats’ massive $3.5 trillion reckless tax-and-spend bill. In that case, I could understand the logic of doing the smaller bill instead of the massive bill,” he said.

“But it’s not being offered in exchange,” he continued. “The Democrats have made it clear that they’re going to pass this infrastructure bill, take every penny of the spending and then turn around and try to ram through their massive $3.5 trillion tax-and-spend bill right on top of this.”

Other conservatives have warned GOP colleagues that voting for the bipartisan infrastructure bill is a political mistake because it gives Biden a big win and advances his larger agenda.

“My own view is that this is Republicans supporting the Joe Biden agenda and it’s a very woke, leftist agenda,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “He’s keeping his promise, but that’s not an agenda I support and certainly Republican voters don’t support it. I think it’s going to be hard to explain to them why you were part of helping this get through.”