Rick Scott: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill is a Mistake

As I look back on our accomplishments in Washington over the past two years, I am proud of what we have achieved. We have delivered major victories for the American people, including historic tax cuts, major regulatory reforms, two Supreme Court justices, a new trade deal with our neighbors, and smashing job growth. And today, we are going to make history again by signing the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But I cannot stress enough that this is just the beginning. I believe this legislation is just the first step in a long process of rebuilding our nation’s crumbling infrastructure. And let me be very clear: this is just the beginning of our efforts to fix Washington. We have a lot of work left to do, and I am eager to get to it. <br><br>Many of my colleagues in the Senate disagree with that assessment. They believe that this bill is a mistake; that we are spending too much money, that we are not addressing the real problems facing our nation’s infrastructure, and that we are giving our implicit stamp of approval for President Biden’s upcoming, and undoubtedly bloated, reconciliation bill. <br><br>I couldn’t agree more. I urged my colleagues not to support the infrastructure bill until we had a chance to read it, understand it fully, discuss it as a Conference, and vote on it as a Conference. That didn’t happen, and now we have sent a bill to the President’s desk that we still haven’t fully read. I urged my colleagues not to support the infrastructure bill until we were sure that President Biden had abandoned his threats to veto the bill unless it was paired with his reconciliation bill. That didn’t happen, and now we are left wondering what exactly President Biden means when he says this bill will have to be “conjoined with the reconciliation bill.” I urged my colleagues not to support the infrastructure bill until the Biden Administration’s IRS was transparent about its plans to monitor every ordinary American’s bank and credit card accounts. That didn’t happen, and now our constituents are still left wondering why the Administration needs to know every time they buy a $28 stack of pancakes from IHOP. <br><br>I made my position clear. I am not going to vote for this bill, and I am not going to vote for the upcoming reconciliation bill. But I have also made it very clear that my opposition to this bill should not be seen as opposition to the idea of rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure. I believe we can do a better job rebuilding our nation’s roads and bridges without raising taxes, without growing inflation, and without paying for pet projects. I believe we can do a better job of making new investments in clean water, transportation, and broadband without growing the national debt. But that is not what this bill does. And all of my fellow Republicans who voted for this bill should be ashamed. This is not what we were sent to Washington to do.