ICYMI--Hagerty Joins Cavuto Live to Discuss His Hostage-Infrastructure Prediction Coming True, Ramifications of Biden's Failed Policies

Press Release

United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined Cavuto Live on Fox News to discuss the U.S. House of Representatives passing the so-called infrastructure bill that he refused to expedite to give the American people more time to learn what was in it, how it wasn't paid for, and how it was inextricably linked to Democrats' big-government socialism legislation.

Partial Transcript

Hagerty on some Republicans bailing out Pelosi: "You recall that I fought this very hard in the Senate. It was very surprising to me to see 13 Republicans basically bail Nancy Pelosi out. She did not have the votes within her own party to do this. We had 13 Republicans that decided to step up and help her in this way. I think what they did was put themselves on a path to early retirement."

Hagerty on the fulfillment of his August infrastructure-hostage prophecy: "Well, the situation I think should be evaluated in the light of what happened in Virginia. What we saw earlier this week was the American public, certainly manifested itself in Virginia, spoke out. They repudiated these policies that we're seeing coming from the Democrat party. And what's happened here is exactly what I predicted would happen, Neil. Back in August, I said this, when I refused to allow this process to expedite, when I refused to allow this $1.2 trillion bill to be expedited through the Senate. I said this would become the hostage that Nancy Pelosi would use to open the door for this massive big-government spending program that they've now teed up for later in November. That's exactly what happened. Nancy Pelosi held this bill for three months. The bill was the hostage. They signed it exactly as it was sent over from the Senate. They've sat on it for three months until she could get the votes she needed last night to lay the procedural framework to go ahead and move forward on this massive big-government spending bill."

Hagerty on forthcoming implications of opening the door to Democrats' big-government socialism package: "I think the concern that everybody should have right now is looking at what this has laid the groundwork for. This $1.2 trillion package was used by Nancy Pelosi to force her party together, to force together the votes, to lay the groundwork, to pass this massive $3.5, 6 trillion--you come up with a number, Neil. They're still working on it, and I can guarantee you, the [Congressional Budget Office] CBO is going to come up with a disappointing outcome, but they passed the $1.2 [trillion] out of the Senate with a quarter of a trillion dollars of a shortfall when they said earlier that it would all be paid for. It was not. I don't expect that to be the case with this massive Build Back Better plan that really is a big-government socialism package. And the American public will not want this. I'm thinking that the consequences are going to be pretty severe for those who've enabled this, and particularly these 13 House members. After looking at what happened in Virginia just earlier this week, it really does puzzle me."

Hagerty on supply chain turmoil emanating from Biden's failed policies: "That may be part of the problem, Neil, but another part is, look what happens when you stop paying people not to work. We've actually seen our employment numbers come back. That has a lot to do with the fact that we've stopped subsidizing unemployment, but we've also got a lot of other things happening. And I think that one of the worst things that's going to happen in terms of supply chain dislocation is this vaccine mandate. Company after company that I talk with in my home state of Tennessee are telling me they're going to lose workers. This is going to exacerbate the problem. I even put together an op-ed this week--the mandate that stole Christmas, but this is going to be a very big concern as we look at further worsening of the supply chain. And then when you look at what they've done to our energy independence by killing the Keystone XL Pipeline, by basically unleashing war on fossil fuels. And again, that's what this massive big-government spending program is going to do. It's going to destroy the fossil fuel industry. This is the [Green New Deal] under another name. As they embark on this, they're going to make transportation costs higher. They're going to increase the cost of transporting everything through the supply chain. They're going to make it more difficult to get workers. We've got trucker shortages. All of this is part and parcel to bad policy."

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