Today, Congressman Blake Moore issued the following statement after his vote on the infrastructure bill:
“Over the past year, I have engaged with stakeholders across Utah to ensure our state’s infrastructure needs are being met, and I am fully supportive of a targeted and fiscally sound infrastructure package.
I acknowledge and praise the bipartisan group of senators who put in the work to preserve the filibuster and show the American people they can work together and deliver results. But in the House, passage of the reconciliation package has been linked to passage of this infrastructure bill. Speaker Pelosi has said it; President Biden has said it; progressive and moderate Democrats have said it; and while Democrat posturing and angling continues, I must take them at their word. Democrats are using passage of the infrastructure bill as a way to help internally advance their egregious $1.75 trillion tax and spend package, which Democrats are attempting to force through before the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office can give us an accurate estimate for the true cost of the proposal.
I have been consistent since the beginning: if enough House Democrats would commit to voting down the reconciliation bill—which will hurt Utah businesses, lower wages, exports jobs abroad, and consolidate power in Washington—then the infrastructure compromise bill would make sense for House Republicans to consider. The infrastructure deal includes many provisions that benefit Utahns.
But I simply cannot take the risk that my vote for this infrastructure bill in the House would help advance Speaker Pelosi’s fiscal tragedy in any way. The reconciliation package amounts to our country’s largest ever spending and tax increase. It is full of mandates that move our country backwards, not forwards.
Our nation currently sits on $28 trillion in debt. Our Medicare and Social Security Trust Funds will be depleted in the very near future. Creating new and unnecessary cradle-to-grave entitlements without shoring up existent social programs puts vulnerable Americans at risk. Undisciplined spending threatens our national security, raises prices, taxes the working class, and destroys jobs. The reconciliation bill mindlessly dumps billions of dollars into aged government programs we already know aren’t working. It dangerously expands the size and scope of the federal government at the expense of the state of Utah, funds abortions with taxpayer money, and raises taxes on job creators and Utah families. I will do all in my power to ensure it does not pass into law.
I believe Congress must be much more thoughtful as we help ensure all Americans have opportunities to succeed. I will continue to fight for innovative, dynamic, and responsible federal spending to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.”
