Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) believes President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act is imperfect but said Friday that she voted for it anyway under the assumption that the Senate would likely “slim down” the behemoth legislation.
Slotkin, who is one of the most vulnerable Democrats running for reelection next year, attempted to appease her Republican-leaning base by releasing an explanatory statement on Friday about her vote for the bill.
“It’s not perfect — and there are things I would have preferred to be taken out of the bill, and that I believe the Senate will now slim down,” Slotkin wrote shortly after it passed the House with no Republican support:
Today, I voted for the Build Back Better Act. I laid out my criteria from the start: it needed to be transformative, targeted & paid for without taxing the middle class. It’s not perfect — but it will make daily life better & more affordable for Michigan families. My statement: pic.twitter.com/HTtqyE7E92
— Rep. Elissa Slotkin (@RepSlotkin) November 19, 2021
The legislation Slotkin supported exceeds 2,000 pages and is packed with — among many far-left items — “environmental justice” provisions, “equity” initiatives, amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, and a controversial state and local tax (SALT) deduction that will benefit millionaires. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would add $367 billion to the U.S. deficit.
Slotkin admitted the issue of immigration in the bill “is not handled in a comprehensive manner, and does not get at the root causes of our broken immigration system, nor the enduring problems at the southern border.”
The Michigan Democrat, nevertheless, cast her vote for the bill, which would grant amnesty to an estimated 6.5 million illegal aliens in the wake of illegal migration at the U.S.-Mexico border skyrocketing under Biden’s leadership.
Slotkin’s vote, and her subsequent justification for it, were met with swift backlash from critics at conservative campaign and research groups, who contended that Slotkin owns every provision in the bill by voting in favor of it and that she “lied” to her constituents when she said the bill “needs to be paid for, and not on the backs of the middle class” for her to vote yes on it:
She’s voting for the bill, so she’s getting the ads on all of the policies in there https://t.co/F4lfLz36B4
— Mike Berg (@MikeKBerg) November 19, 2021
this might as well be her statement announcing retirement https://t.co/t58FAnInOa
— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) November 19, 2021
If I’m reading this correctly, @RepSlotkin voted for legislation while operating under the assumption that the Senate will “slim it down.”
What really needs to be slimmed down is Nancy Pelosi’s caucus, and this is a great reason why that needs to happen. https://t.co/vJLzdPGMcZ
— Chris Martin (@chrisjdmartin) November 19, 2021
.@ElissaSlotkin promised not to vote for Joe Biden’s wasteful tax-and-spend package if it was “on the backs of the middle class.” She lied.https://t.co/rgXlHCLAQ5
— Michigan Rising Action (@MIRisingAction) November 19, 2021
Slotkin lied to every single Michigan voter. Voting “yes” means she supports every aspect of this socialist wishlist. https://t.co/9Qoa3ESoRa
— Chris Gustafson (@chris_gustafson) November 19, 2021
Slotkin currently represents Michigan’s Eighth Congressional District, but the Detroit News noted in October that forthcoming redistricting changes will create a Lansing-area district that Slotkin “is setting her sights on,” as it will include some of her current district. The outlet noted that although the district has not been finalized, all congressional map proposals still position Slotkin to run as an underdog in a tight race next year.
Regardless of where the lines end up, “the odds are stacked against us,” Slotkin told the Detroit News in October.
The Michigan Democrat became a ripe target for Republicans hoping to win the House majority next year after she won her race in 2020 by less than four points and was one of just seven Democrats to win in a district that former President Donald Trump also won in 2020.
In her statement on Friday, Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, reasoned of her controversial vote for Biden’s nearly $2 trillion package that “coming from the national security world and years of international negotiations, I know that no one ever gets everything they want. On net, this bill is positive for my district and my state, so I voted for it.”
Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who, like Slotkin, has a Republican-leaning constituency, was the lone Democrat to vote against the bill. Golden cited “tax giveaways” as one of his reasons for opposing it.
Write to Ashley Oliver at [email protected].
