back with us now arkansas republican
rick crawford he's on house
transportation and infrastructure
congressman it looks like the
infrastructure deal is falling apart
because senator bernie sanders says no
dice
to senator mitch mcconnell mitch
mcconnell is saying the president you
got to force schumer and
supellosi back down you can't hold an
infrastructure deal hostage
to their big spending plans that's not
deal-making that's hostage-taking
the president did walk the threat back
the threat of a veto what is going to
happen here what do you think
well it's hard to say it's interesting
to know that the the loudest voices on
this infrastructure debate are coming
from
members who don't even serve on the
transportation and infrastructure
committee in the house
in the house tni committee there's not a
single member of the squad
and yet they're the ones that seem to be
uh attempting to steer this
their way and they're getting some help
from bernie sanders on the other side of
the
capitol so uh you know when there's a
crisis the first question people ask
is who's in charge here and we're not
getting an answer from the president it
looks to me as though the squad and
bernie sanders are calling the shots
and we just can't have that
yeah mitt romney's saying the
republicans are not going to go for all
of this again this isn't deal-making it
feels like hostage-taking
you know so are they botching their
recovery they botch the shutdowns
restaurants and bars and small
businesses can't hire workers
people are being paid to stay at home
those are facts studies are showing this
this is happening across the country
it's forced it's gotten 26 states to say
no more federal jobless benefits enough
is enough the missouri governor is
saying it's harming the recovery
paying people to stay home and now we've
got clinton and obama's former treasury
secretaries robert rubin
and larry summers saying high inflation
is here to stay larry summers is talking
about five percent inflation by the end
of the year from all this high velocity
government spending what do you say
congressman
well this government spending i think we
need to go back to 2008 and think about
uh the housing crisis that led to up to
this point
a 300 increase in the national debt
which is now at 28 a trillion dollars
roughly that's going to be the single
biggest line item
uh in our budget uh surpassing even
defense
and and there's not been a single
proposal on how we
expect to pay for this infrastructure
spending
that people like senator byrne bernie
sanders and uh
the squad are proposing so this is uh
and president biden seems to be going
along with this
that's what concerns me the most about
this is that you want to talk about
human infrastructure if you're concerned
about human infrastructure which the
president has indicated
he's coined that new term then you know
be thinking about
what your your spending proposal is
going to do
to human infrastructure with regard to
this perpetual inflation
it's an important point you just made
because that's a tax on the middle class
effectively inflation
you know senator rand paul says stop
yeah senator rand paul is saying stop
the spending in places like afghanistan
bring the spending home
let's listen to axios reporter jonathan
swann here
along with senator bill cassidy on
what's going on watch this
there's bipartisan opposition to the
non-hard infrastructure portion of their
bill bipartisan
in both chambers that's number one
number two republicans think
that portion is bad for our country we
have an inflation rate that is higher
than it's been in quite some time
and that bill would make it higher i
spoke to republicans and democrats who
are involved in those negotiations
they couldn't believe it when when joe
biden said this i mean it is
you know we should acknowledge
astonishing to
basically present this deal as nirvana
you know the greatest deal that's ever
been struck you know essential for the
american people
and then you know in a sort of very
short period of time
say but but i'm not going to sign it
unless it simultaneously
arrives on my desk with with this other
separate bill for social spending
so listen people want to help
middle-class families
you want to help families out there with
children and more
but the point is there's a wish list of
a lot of unnecessary stuff in here
is it your point that it's the squad
it's bernie sanders and elizabeth
warren who are really controlling things
controlling nancy pelosi controlling
chuck schumer controlling biden even is
that your point
well i think there's a realization that
they may have
this one opportunity to get everything
they want
because they're on very shaky ground
with regard to
uh holding their majority and so i think
they're gonna go for broke here
literally and figuratively i think
they're gonna you know
put everything they possibly can into
this and
hope that they can get it passed hope
that they have some folks on on the
senate side that will waiver
hope that they can get the filibuster to
crumble and and then they'll get their
way and and we just can't sustain this
our economy is in no position
to sustain this level of spending
without any proposal for pay for
yeah you're going to have to tax the
middle class to pay for it congressman
rick crawford
it's good to see you come back soon it's
great to have you on