President Joe Biden on Monday delivered remarks in Baltimore, Maryland, where he touted a tunnel project being addressed with funds from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act he signed in 2021. At the same time, he continues to refuse spending cut negotiations with Republican lawmakers over the $31.3 trillion debt ceiling breached on January 19, even though he has admitted Washington politicians need to rein in the national debt.
Biden visited Baltimore to discuss a renovation to the Baltimore-Patomic Tunnel, a rail tunnel he claimed to have passed through “a thousand times” as an Amtrak passenger.
Ulysses S. Grant was President when the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel opened.
150 years later, the tunnel is the largest bottleneck for commuter passengers between DC and NJ.
President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will replace the tunnel. https://t.co/JLIMXfwHq8
— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend46) January 29, 2023
“But folks look, I made a thousand trips through this tunnel, so I’ve been through this tunnel a thousand times,” said Biden. “But when folks talk about how bad the Baltimore tunnel needs an upgrade, you don’t need me to tell you.”
“I also know that it’s not just Amtrak; I know how important this tunnel is to the computer rail – computer rail, commuter rail – and MARC rail back and forth to Washington,” he added.
The White House estimates the project will run $6 billion, and up to $4.7 billion of the cost could be covered by the infrastructure bill.
“This law is the most significant investment in American roads and bridges since the interstate highway system, and it’s the most significant investment in the rail on America since Amtrak was created 50 years ago,” Biden asserted.
21st century transit infrastructure is a game changer for America. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law makes the largest investment in rail transit since the creation of Amtrak. https://t.co/8ApIgfuZir https://t.co/JuQrGYrm6n
— Costa Samaras (@CostaSamaras46) January 30, 2023
The “bipartisan infrastructure bill,” which yielded no conservative victories but many leftist spending initiatives, was signed into law in November 2021, months after he signed the massive $1.7 trillion American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief package.
As Breitbart News reported after the passage of the bill, “Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) … noted that only $110 billion of the $1.2 trillion in spending would fund roads, bridges, and other projects that most Americans would consider infrastructure.”
“The RSC wrote that it would include $66 billion in funding for Amtrak while preventing any taxpayer accountability for the railway service,” added Breitbart News’s Sean Moran.
Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that the United States had hit its 31.3 trillion debt ceiling, and the Department of the Treasury estimated it could turn to “extraordinary measures” until June to keep the U.S. from defaulting on its runaway debt.
Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean Pierre, has stated that the president believes the ceiling should be raised “without conditions,” and the White House has made clear the president does not intend to negotiate with Republicans, who are seeking cuts to offset the debt in exchange for raising the ceiling.
However, Biden, on the heels of his and the last Democrat-controlled Congress’s massive spending spree, noted a few weeks ago while speaking to mayors from around the country in the East Room of the White House that Washington, DC, politicians “need to focus on making sure we do not accumulate more debt.” He then floated the idea of tax hikes while seemingly attempting to amplify the narrative that Republicans seek spending cuts on Social Security and Medicare specifically.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reportedly assured Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) last week that there would be no cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Former President Donald Trump has sternly warned Republicans against cuts to either program to “help pay for Joe Biden’s reckless spending spree.” Instead, he proposed cutting “hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars going to corrupt foreign countries,” cutting “the mass releases of illegal aliens that are depleting our social safety net and destroying our country,” ending radical gender programs in the military, and nixing reckless funding on “climate extremism.”
“Cut waste, fraud, and abuse everywhere that we can find it, and there’s plenty of it, but do not cut the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives. Save social security, don’t destroy it,” he cautioned.