Republican strategist Karl Rove said Democrats are "blowing smoke" when they insist massive social spending will lead to victory in next year's midterms.
The former White House deputy chief of staff specifically called out Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., in an opinion column for The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday and during a Thursday appearance on Fox News.
"He's the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and he says all this spending is going to bring us victory in 2022, and that's baloney," Rove said on Fox News.
Rove, who served in the White House under then-President George W. Bush, proceeded to mention several polls in which Republicans earned a near 20-point advantage over Democrats when it came to handling the economy, inflation, and crime.
"So, the Democrats are blowing smoke at us, and blowing smoke at themselves if they think that the answer to this coming election is spend more of the people's money because that's going to give us victory at the polls," he told Fox News. "Not going to happen."
After signing into law a $1 trillion infrastructure bill Monday, President Joe Biden and fellow progressives now are aiming to pass a $1.85 trillion social spending and climate package.
"This has not been done in the normal process," Rove said of the spending legislation. "We have not taken this measure through committees; we have not had votes; we've not discussed it; we've not looked at it; it's a 2,185-page document and we’re rushing to get it through the House without a [nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office] score.
"And even if we get the CBO score, we know this: The bill is filled with gimmicks. It has 10 years of revenue to pay for programs that are sun-setted after three years, five years, or six years, which is never going to happen. These programs are designed to be permanent. So, right from the beginning, it’s based on a big lie."
After being shown a video of Biden promoting the legislation, Rove rhetorically asked, "If the way that we could make prosperity wider and bigger in the country is to spend more money, why are we stopping [here]. Why not spend more?
"This is based on a fraud," Rove added to Fox News. "It is an expansion of the welfare state, not an expansion of the prosperity state. It is an expansion of the government giving money to favored groups and not a situation of where it’s going the economy."
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