The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) told reporters on Monday that he will not support a $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal reached between a bipartisan group of senators because it doesn’t do enough to address the needs of the country and protects the wealthy from tax increases.
“I wouldn’t vote for it,” he told reporters according to the Hill. “The bottom line is there are needs facing this country. Now is the time to address those needs and it has to be paid for in a progressive way given the fact that we have massive income, wealth inequality in America.”
Other Democrats also express the our disappointment with the bill which only calls for $579 billion dollars of new spending. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said the proposal was “very, very paltry. And disappointing.” But, he said he is willing to support it “if there’s some definite, iron-clad assurance that we would then do a second package through budget reconciliation to compensate for the abject deficiency of this one.”
Several Republicans have already voiced serious concerns with the package, the Hill reports.
In an evenly divided Senate this means to get the bill pass at least 11 Republican senators would join all 49 Democrats in support of the measure.
