WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined Making Money with Charles Payne to discuss his refusal to expedite the infrastructure bill, the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion socialist debt bomb, and the upcoming debate over raising the debt ceiling.
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Partial Transcript:
Hagerty on Democrats’ $3.5 trillion socialist debt bomb: “It’s going to mean, as you said, a $3.5 trillion debt bomb that’s going to be launched on society. It’s also the major component of Joe Biden’s transformation of America. This is a social reformation of our nation like we’ve never seen before. You’d have to go back to the Great Society Programs in the 1960’s to see something of this magnitude. This infrastructure bill that we’re talking about right now is just going to lay the path, it’s going to create the momentum, and frankly, it’s going to give Nancy Pelosi a tool to hold hostage so she can get the $3.5 trillion package that she’s really looking for.”
Hagerty on what he hears from Tennesseans: “[The Democrat far left] clearly has control of the party here in Washington. And what Washington thinks is important, what Washington priorities may be, certainly aren’t the priorities of the rest of America. I can tell you that from my standpoint in Tennessee and my supporters in Tennessee, my voters in Tennessee, the people I represent in Tennessee, they’ve all been very clear with me that they do not want to see more spending like this, this reckless spending that’s taking place at a time where we’ve got massive inflation underway. That’s the most pernicious tax at all inflation, and that’s hitting everybody, particularly our retirees and the people lowest incomes. To dump another $1.9 trillion in March and this package probably winds up being another $4, $5, or $6 trillion once it’s finally scored out, that’s massive amounts of stimulus at a time when we don’t need it.”
Hagerty on why he refused to expedite the infrastructure bill: “Certainly not all of my colleagues are backing it, and the fact that I was able to stop this infrastructure package, slow it down, keep it from being passed in the middle of the night last Thursday has given us some time to really air this in front of the American public. And what I’ve seen is a couple of my colleagues actually moving off of the bipartisan group that negotiated this package of moved over to say, they’re not going to support it now. And I think we’re putting a lot more pressure on the House of Representatives. At this point, it’s going to be harder and harder as the American public actually sees what’s in this bill to support it.”
Hagerty on the debt ceiling: “I’ve grown up in the financial markets. I understand the implications of this, but any increase in the debt ceiling is going to have to be met with an equal or greater than cutting tax and spending cuts. That that’s the way this is going to have to work. But I tell you this, it’s ironic because the Democrats have gone on this spending spree—again $1.9 trillion back in March, they’re probably going to take us north of $6 trillion—on a wholly partisan basis. I’ll remind you, Democrats control the White House, the House of Representatives, and in the Senate here, they used a process called reconciliation to shove the spending through on a wholly partisan basis. Now they’re coming to Republicans and asking us to bail them out of the spending jam that they’ve gotten themselves into. I think that’s really rich.”