Thirteen GOP lawmakers came under fire after bucking the party line and voting in favor of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, with several defending their decisions Saturday morning.
The lawmakers were slammed by those on the Right, such as Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for their votes in favor of the infrastructure bill, after which several of the 13 lawmakers took to Twitter to defend their votes. Republican Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Don Young of Alaska, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Andrew Garbarino and John Katko of New York, and David McKinley of West Virginia were among those who defended their decision to cross the aisle.
“This bill is a win,” Katko said in his statement posted to Twitter, adding that the bill will create a “once in a generation investment in our nation’s physical infrastructure including our roads and bridges, ports and waterways, broadband networks, electrical grid, clean water systems, and airports.”
My statement on tonight’s votes in the House. pic.twitter.com/T6deqceSpS
— Rep. John Katko (@RepJohnKatko) November 6, 2021
Garbarino slammed the “great deal of partisan rhetoric being thrown around” over the bill, which he said was “about roads, bridges, and clean water.”
“The bipartisan infrastructure bill will not raise taxes or increase costs to American families. What it will do is allocate $24.9 billion for New York highways, bridges, and transit, provide $15 billion to replace lead service lines for New York drinking water, grant $470 million to New York’s MacArthur, Republic, LaGuardia, and JFK airports, and fund may other vital infrastructure projects that Long Island residents desperately need,” he wrote.
My statement on today’s vote for the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. pic.twitter.com/o2LzLpDc8k
— Rep. Andrew Garbarino (@RepGarbarino) November 6, 2021
Kinzinger took issue with Greene’s characterization of the 13 Republicans as having supported President Joe Biden‘s “Communist takeover of America via so-called infrastructure.”
“Infrastructure=communism is a new one,” Kinzinger said in response to Greene’s tweet. “Eisenhower’s interstate system should be torn up or else the commies will be able to conveniently drive.”
Infrastructure=communism is a new one. Eisenhower’s interstate system should be torn up or else the commies will be able to conveniently drive! Red Dawn in real life pic.twitter.com/WTPtBYDSHx
— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) November 6, 2021
Though the lawmakers stood by their Friday evening votes, they cautioned against proposals to tie the infrastructure bill to social spending measures favored by the Left. Garbarino argued the infrastructure vote was separate from the tax and reconciliation social spending bill, which he “adamantly” opposes, and Katko slammed the “far-left wish list that will raise taxes, implement radical Green New Deal policies, make our economy less competitive, and exacerbate the skyrocketing inflation that is already hurting Central New York families.”
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Greene praised leftist “Squad” members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, and Ayanna Pressley for following through with their vow to oppose the bill unless there was also a vote on the Democrats’ reconciliation social spending bill. The reconciliation spending bill initially had a price tag of $3.5 trillion, but it was worked down to $1.75 trillion after objections from centrist members, such as Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
