Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Interview with Mike Lee

Interview

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Here now is one of the infrastructure bill's chief critics, Utah Senator Mike Lee. Senator, wonderful to see you tonight. How does any of this make sense, given the economic situation our country is in right now?

SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): It doesn't, Laura. That's the thing. This bill is a massive inflation bomb being dropped on an already carpet bombed economy. It can't take any more government. We've been pumping the government so full of money and that into the economy - it's causing the dollar to lose its value.

This bill is sort of a reverse Robinhood. It's stealing from the poor to give to the rich. There are a small handful of very well connected wealthy interests who will get richer off of this bill. But everybody else will get poorer as we inflate the dollar. That's not fair to hardworking Americans. It's bad for Utahns, it's bad for all Americans everywhere.

INGRAHAM: Now, I want to get back to this measure in the bill that would track your vehicle miles. The objectives of the pilot program are to address the need for additional revenue and to provide recommendations relating to the adoption and implementation of a national motor vehicle per mile user fee.

Senator, we have Romney, McConnell, Portman, Bill Cassidy, Hoeven, et cetera, et cetera, supporting what will ultimately lead to another tax on Americans. And then the $3.5 trillion bill, which is joined at the hip with this. Why is McConnell doing this?

LEE: He will have to speak for himself. I can speak only for myself. And I can tell you, look, this - look, they'll say it's only a pilot project, but a pilot project is a little like a pilot light. It's there to make sure that it moves forward. And, look, there's no way that that can actually develop into a full fledged program without a massive intrusion into privacy and liberty interests that the American people hold dear.

When you add this to all of the other problems with the bill, including the fact that it will make it more difficult for first-time homebuyers to get into a home at a time when Utahns and all Americans are struggling with the high price of housing and health care and gasoline and groceries, this is not fair. It's not right. We shouldn't be doing it.

INGRAHAM: Well, it seems like and I know you don't want to criticize your fellow senators. I understand there is Senate protocol and all that. But this infrastructure bill, contrary to what Senator Cassidy said on this program a few nights ago, is going to pave the way to the $3.5 trillion permanent entitlement nightmare. That is the squad's dream legislation. They want a few more things, but they're pretty happy with it.

Again, what does this do to the Republican Party's credentials for being smaller government, less reliant on government dependency, more control? What are these 17 senators doing here? And why are they doing it?

LEE: Well, I think it's horrible for the brand. I mean, look, Laura, it wasn't very long ago before both parties would have absolutely recoiled at the idea of a $1.2 trillion spending bill. And sure, they claim that the $550 billion of it, it's new, is paid for. It's not. The pay fours are fake.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget looked at it and concluded that over half of the pay fours are fake. There's no pay in the pay four. And as a result of that we're just inflating our way through this business.

By the way, the reason we have to rely on that committee's report is because the Congressional Budget Office, the CBO, hasn't issued a score. That's wrong too. We shouldn't be voting on it when we don't have a score. And we're not going to have one by the time we have to have vote on this.

INGRAHAM: Do you think yes or no, Republicans have lost, if they go forward with this infrastructure bill? Have they lost their leverage in stopping the $3.5 trillion nightmare coming down the pike? Yes or no?

LEE: I believe we lose a substantial amount of leverage as a result of this, which is why I have thought this was a mistake from the beginning. But, look, Laura, we were told for months that they were working on this, that this would go somewhere, and we were told to be patient.

We finally received the bill for the first time Sunday night at 9 or 10 pm Eastern Time, 2700 pages long. And I can't imagine that any of them could read it. It doesn't read like a fast paced novel. They worked on it for four months and then they expect us to process this thing in four days. This is no way to run a railroad, certainly not a way to run a Republic.

INGRAHAM: Yes. $3.5 trillion is going to be 10,000 pages. And then (inaudible) she wrote. Senator, thank you for being principled on this. All 17 Republicans, you should be ashamed of yourselves for what you're doing on this infrastructure bill. Thank you.

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