Republican Senators Bash Biden for Breaking His ‘Unity’ Promise

Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, left, speaks with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, during a Sena
AROLINE BREHMAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Jacob Bliss

Republican senators bashed President Joe Biden following his first address before the joint session of Congress Wednesday for breaking his promise on “unifying a divided nation.”

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Republican Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) bashed Biden for breaking his promise. The two Senators released separate statements on tonight’s speech. Grassley wrote:

Biden campaigned on unifying a divided nation. Part of that means working with a Congress divided right down the middle. Thus far he’s done very little to back up his words from the campaign trail, and he’s stood by while others in his party use divisive rhetoric that only serves to further inflame discord in our nation.

Biden did not say enough about how he “plans to address the worst border crisis in recent memory,” Grassley added, mentioning that the Republicans are “willing to work with the administration, but bipartisanship takes commitment from both sides.”

Grassley also condemned the Biden administration for hiking taxes, saying that will be the “quickest way to slow our post-pandemic economic recovery” rather than having a speedy recovery.

He finished by saying:

President Biden is only 100 days in, so there’s plenty of time for him to turn things around and make good on his campaign promise to unite the country. I’d still like to work with the president and his administration to lower prescription drug prices and further reform the criminal justice system. I know from his time in the Senate that he’s capable of being a bipartisan dealmaker. The question is will his left-wing base let him?

Portman tweeted his speech on the Senate floor earlier Wednesday was about Biden’s first 100 days in office and his “broken promise on unifying the country.” Portman also spoke about how to get the county back on track versus dividing it more.

Portman said, “Instead of working together [Biden] has proposed more than $6T in new spending & tax hikes in the first 100 days.”

Portman broke down the $6 trillion to $1.9 trillion “stimulus” bill, $2.7 trillion for “infrastructure” bill plus massive tax hikes, and $1.8 trillion for more liberal priorities plus more massive tax hikes.

Portman broke down the more than $6 trillion spending bill Biden has proposed to equal a $1.9 trillion “stimulus” bill, $2.7 trillion for an “infrastructure” bill – plus massive tax hikes, and $1.8 trillion for more liberal priorities – plus more massive tax hikes.

The Republican from Ohio believes “There is a better path forward. Let’s work together on fixing our roads, bridges, ports, broadband & other key infrastructure priorities, and set aside the liberal wishlist of proposals that have never been defined as infrastructure,” adding, “we can do this in a bipartisan way.”

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