NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined America Reports on Fox News to discuss the current state of Democrats’ so-called Build Back Better legislation, and the misplaced focus of the Democrat Party.
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Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the end of “BBB”: “[Leader McConnell] is absolutely correct, and [Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer is talking about bringing this back and forcing his party to vote on this. Already, at least 51 senators are against it— it will not pass. He’s going to force the more moderate members of his party to walk the plank. This is going to be very harmful to those members of his party who are going to have to face the American public because the American public does not want what’s in this bill. We have rampant inflation. They want to kill the oil and gas industry at a time when gas prices are through the roof. They want to make America much less competitive. They want to send more jobs overseas and tax policies that would be devastating to America. This is not what the American public wants. I think that Joe Manchin has made that loud and clear, and so have 50 Republican senators, and I think this is going to be very, very painful. This is probably more about fear and anger on Chuck Schumer’s part. He’s angry that he couldn’t get it done. He’s probably fearful that he’ll see a primary from the likes of AOC.”
Hagerty on the American public’s disapproval of “BBB”: “If you look at it, we’ve got inflation that we haven’t seen in 39 years—not since 1982, when new Coke was introduced. They’re talking about pouring more government spending on this inflationary fire. We don’t need it at this point in time at all. This inflation is the most pernicious, broad-based tax that could be imposed on the American public. We’re feeling it. I think the taxpayers are feeling it very harshly right now. And the voters are sending the message back loud and clear to their senators. Certainly 51 of us see this and hear this and understand it.”
Hagerty on the frustrations of progressive Democrats: “It probably does make them more furious because it doesn’t have a lot of the things that you talked about that they want in there. This Christmas tree effect that so many of them had voted for, really what this was, was a bunch of gimmicks. They want to really spend $5 or $6 trillion, that’s what these programs would truly amount to. Joe Manchin is talking about something that’s cut down that doesn’t use the budgetary gimmicks. It’s going to leave the progressives very, very upset.”
Hagerty on the misplaced focus of the Democrat Party: “I think the closer they get to Election Day 2022 the harder this is going to be. What we’ve seen is a war break out within the Democrat Party. The progressives are furious that they let their hostage get away. That was the so-called ‘bipartisan infrastructure bill’, but after the Virginia race—the Virginia gubernatorial race—Biden needed some sort of win. They released their hostage in exchange for a promise. And that promise was that they would get Build Back Better. Well, it didn’t happen. And I think what we’re seeing right now is an inter-party war within the Democrat Party. AOC is going to be threatening Chuck Schumer hard. You’re going to see a lot of pressure here. I don’t know where it lands, but the American public is watching this unfold, we’re seeing this happen at a time when inflation is running through the roof. This is indeed not what America wants right now. It’s not what we need. We’ve got crises happening all over the world. You look at what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine right now. You look at what’s happening in China. We need to be focused on what’s important, not on this.”