AJC: Every Georgia GOP Senate Contender Opposes Infrastructure Plan

As Senator Reverend Warnock helps deliver the largest long-term investment in America’s infrastructure and global competitiveness in nearly a century, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that every GOP Senate candidate vying to challenge him is opposing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, which would “devote tens of billions of dollars to new roads, bridges, broadband pipelines and other infrastructure projects in Georgia.” 

‘No and no.’ Why Georgia GOP Senate contenders oppose infrastructure, budget plans

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Greg Bluestein, 8/12/21

• The crowd was just beginning to break up at Senate candidate Gary Black’s campaign stop in Marietta on Wednesday when he was asked his stance on the dual infrastructure and budget proposals moving forward in Congress. Before the question ended, the Republican interjected: “No and no.”

• The agriculture commissioner wasn’t alone in his opposition to measures that could top $4.5 trillion. The other two GOP Senate contenders, Kelvin King and Latham Saddler, also flatly rejected the proposals to restructure the U.S. economy.

• The infrastructure measure that passed the U.S. Senate with the help of 19 Republicans this week might have led to a momentary sense of bipartisan bonhomie in Washington; on the campaign trail in Georgia the reception brought a more familiar partisan clash.

• The pair of proposals moving through Congress provide a fresh dividing line in the GOP race against U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a first-term Democrat who hopes to make his support for the measures, along with his vote for a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package earlier this year, a focus of his reelection campaign.

• Warnock was an early supporter of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure, which promises to devote tens of billions of dollars to new roads, bridges, broadband pipelines and other infrastructure projects in Georgia.

• ​​He also backed a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint, adopted by the Senate early Wednesday, that would amount to the largest expansion of the nation’s social safety net since the 1960s. It would be financed in part by increasing the national debt and hiking taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

• Combined, the two measures would touch just about every sector of the U.S. economy, unleash a wave of public spending toward initiatives to expand health care, combat climate change, bolster education spending, offer new child care options and increase internet access.

• Warnock, who presided over the Senate before the final passage of the infrastructure measure, celebrated by detailing the spending headed Georgia’s way. 

• Of the 19 Senate Republicans who crossed party lines to approve the infrastructure measure, Black offered a shrug.

• “I have no earthly idea. They’ll have to answer to their voters,” he said. “This senator would have voted no.”

• Saddler, a former Navy SEAL and White House official, said the spending only “adds to our out-of-control mounting debt.” And King, a construction executive, labeled the price -tag of the proposals as “absurd.”

• “Our elected officials have to stop talking about trillions like we used to talk about millions,” King said. “We are spending away our children’s future with no plan to pay for it.”

• Other potential candidates have also pushed back. U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter said the infrastructure plan devotes too little funding to roads, bridges and ports. Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler has called the measure “disastrous.” Herschel Walker has tied himself to former President Donald Trump, who has tried to derail the package.

• The staunch opposition comes even as local Republican officials endorse the new spending, saying it’s much needed for a range of priorities both big and small. Democrats are betting that even skeptical voters will side with them, particularly as they start to see construction rev up.

• Dan Gottlieb of the state Democratic Party said the Republicans are lining up against “millions of good-paying jobs” that will help Georgians compete in the global economy.

• “While Senator Reverend Warnock helps deliver this huge win for Georgia, every GOP candidate vying to challenge him is opposing the bipartisan plan to rebuild our infrastructure, invest in a generation of Georgia jobs and help American companies compete against China,” he said.

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