WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Republican lawmakers and elected officials visited West Lafayette Friday ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) town hall at the Tippecanoe County Amphitheater.
The rally, called “Stop The Bernie Sanders Spending Spree,” happened at the Four Points by Sheraton and was organized by political advocacy group Americans For Prosperity Indiana.
U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Indiana) and Rep. Jim Baird (R-District 4) were on hand, as well as Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R-Indiana), to speak out against Sanders’ multi-trillion-dollar budget proposal.
Braun said before the event he agrees with some aspects of the proposal but disagrees with how Congressional Democrats are moving it forward.
“I’m going to vote against it on principle because it’s done on a flawed process,” he says. “There’s a lot of merit to much of the legislation and a lot of it in the discussion should be there but it should be done through regular order, committees. That’s why you have committees. We don’t do any of that anymore.”
The House of Representatives voted this week to advance the budget proposal without Republican support. Braun voted against a one-trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure plan passed by the Senate earlier this month.
Rokita spoke with News 18 after the rally. He called Sanders’ budget proposal “the largest spending bill in the history of man” and “a “bloated Socialist power grab.”
He says his concerns about the bill go beyond the way it’s being advanced. He’s worried the additional debt will increase inflation, drive up prices and reduce disposable income.
“Never before has any government in world history spent this much money at once, so for me it’s much more than just process,” he says. “It’s about priority.”
Rokita also criticized Democrats’ broadening definition of infrastructure to include “human infrastructure,” such as universal community college and child care.
