Mitch McConnell, Kill the (Nonexistent) Bill

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has indicated that the chamber could vote as soon as tonight to advance a bipartisan infrastructure deal. Among the many problems: The bill doesn’t exist yet.

To be clear, we have been critics of this expensive infrastructure boondoggle from Day One. David Harsanyi detailed that our infrastructure is not, in fact, crumbling and Charlie Cooke explained why there was no reason to spend trillions of dollars on this manufactured crisis. We editorialized on the charade of Republicans negotiating a “bipartisan” bill that Democrats view as in tandem with their massive social welfare bill cramming in a host of liberal priorities. I have written on how Democrats keep making Republicans look like idiots again and again by rolling them in negotiations. I noted the other day that Senator Joe Manchin blew up the rationale for cutting a smaller bill by explaining that passing the smaller bill was a key part of getting the entire massive Democrats-only packagepassed. This is a package that comes on top of the $6 trillion that was already spent in response to the pandemic and during a time when the White House’s own projections see debt as a share of economy surpassing World War II this year, making it the highest in American history. The larger package, which also hasn’t been released, promises to include a reckless expansion of Medicare even though the existing program is unsustainable.