Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) demanded assurances from Biden that he won't link the bipartisan infrastructure deal that members of his party agreed to with any additional spending during an interview with Fox's Maria Bartiromo this Sunday.
"I talked to a number of members of the bipartisan group. They are all reluctant to move forward. They're gonna need more assurances from the president that there is no link between this bipartisan bill and the bill that the Democrats want to do," Barasso said.
Barasso said if Democrats try and pass a larger bill through reconciliation they will be doing so as "a high wire act with no safety net." [...]
Several GOP senators making the Sunday morning talk show rounds, including Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) indicated that they accepted Biden's clarification.
Barasso called the Democrats larger agenda for spending "basically a freight train heading toward socialism."
Sen. Lindsey Graham was squawking the minute Biden announced his dual track infrastructure plan, calling it "extortion."
Joan McCarter predicted this reaction from Republicans and the fact that this is far from a done deal when it was first announced:
None of this is guaranteed to happen. Sen. Mitch McConnell hasn't blessed this deal, and while there are 11 Republicans involved in this discussion, there is no iron-clad commitment from those 11 that they will vote for it. Republicans have laid the groundwork to say that Biden is reneging as soon as Democrats start the reconciliation process, and they're going to do that to try to peel off Democrats from that effort. Collins will be the first to say it. But for now, Biden can say he got a deal.
