Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) told Breitbart News Tonight that House swing district Democrats have “squandered” the opportunity to pass a bipartisan infrastructure project.
Breitbart News Tonight host Rebecca Mansour and Breitbart News reporter John Binder spoke to Rep. Budd about the importance of passing an infrastructure bill that could revitalize America’s highways, roads, and bridges.
Mansour noted that while swing district Democrats managed to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) through the House, they still have to fulfill many of their 2018 campaign promises.
Thirty swing district Democrats managed to flip Republican districts during the 2018 midterm elections and take the House majority by promising to enact healthcare legislation, protect patients with preexisting conditions, and pass bipartisan legislation such as infrastructure.
President Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had preliminary negotiations on an infrastructure bill in 2019; however, the president said that Pelosi “blew up” any chance of an infrastructure deal by investigating the president and moving towards impeachment.
Mansour noted that Rep. Budd’s legislation, the Generating American Income and Infrastructure Act (GAIIN) Act garnered significant bipartisan support. The GAIIN Act would require the Department of Agriculture to sell its distressed assets and use the proceeds to develop infrastructure in communities below the poverty line. The GAIN Act would also use half of its profits to help pay down the national deficit.
Reps. Mike Kelly (R-PA) and William Lacy Clay (D-MO) backed the legislation. Members of both the Freedom Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) also endorsed the legislation.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) also backed the GAIIN Act as part of a larger infrastructure bill.
The Breitbart News Tonight host asked the North Carolina congressman if he believes that there remains a compromise on infrastructure to occur. The North Carolina conservative said that although there remains an opportunity for a compromise, he does not see anything more than “empty talk” coming from swing district Democrats on infrastructure.
Rep. Budd told Breitbart News Tonight that the GAIIN Act “is a great bill, it still is. We’re actually trying to reach across the aisle and get them to support it again, but because you’re talking about infrastructure and their lack of an appetite for it this time, I think they’re hardening into partisan positions … This was a bipartisan bill; it took $50 billion of non-performing assets or bad debts and sold them off into the public market at and used $25 billion of that to reduce the deficit and $25 billion to go to distressed communities around our country and do infrastructure there and hire from within those communities.”
“It was a great bill supported by the Congressional Black Caucus and the Freedom Caucus, both sides of the political spectrum. It’s a smart bill, and it had a lot of support from a lot of folks, but … across the aisle, they don’t have any interest this year and that shows that infrastructure tends to be bipartisan, and I don’t see that happening in the next ten months,” Rep. Budd added.
“I wish it did, but I don’t see it. Now we could always be surprised — this is an industry of surprise of here in politics,” the North Carolina congressman added.
As recent polls have revealed that voters in swing districts have increasingly soured on freshman Democrats that back impeachment, those battleground Democrats will move into the 2020 election cycle with little to no victories in Congress other than impeachment.
However, as Rep. Budd said, Democrats have “squandered the opportunity” to pass an infrastructure bill that could revitalize America’s highways, bridges, and airports.
Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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