Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn balk at Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget bill

Texas Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn are worried about the price tag of the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget plan.

“It’s an awfully big number. As we see inflation climbing all across the country, the only approach Democrats have is to spend trillions more,” Cruz told the Star-Telegram.

Earlier this week, Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee announced they had agreed on a $3.5 trillion budget plan that would fund many of President Joe Biden’s priorities. Details are scarce, but the budget is expected to include money for Medicare expansion, combating climate change, two free years of community college and universal pre-K education.

“Let’s be clear, let’s be really clear, what we are talking about is the most consequential piece of legislation passed since the 1930s,” budget chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, told reporters.

Details on how the budget will be paid for have not been released, but members of the budget committee have mentioned increased taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations. On Tuesday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, said the plan is “fully paid for”.

Cornyn was not impressed.

“To pay for these runaway spending habits, our Democratic colleagues will lean on job-killing tax increases and excessive borrowing from future generations,” Cornyn said on the Senate floor.

The budget resolution is part of Democrats’ plan to pass a bipartisan physical infrastructure package and a larger package focused on Democrats’ priorities like paid leave, child care, education, and climate change. Just one defection from the party, possibly from Democrat moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, could sink the larger bill in the Senate.

For now, Manchin said in a statement that he is waiting to judge the proposal until he has had a chance to fully review it.

This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn balk at Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget bill."