Cornyn: Biden's infrastructure proposal is a 'trojan horse'

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is joining the chorus of Republican critics of President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan.

"We need a bipartisan bill to rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges – not a $2.7 trillion trojan horse," Cornyn said in a statement.

Only 5% of the funds in the proposal would be spent on modernizing roads and bridges, the Texas senator said on Twitter.

Bank of America’s study of the proposal found that about half of the $2.2 trillion should be considered traditional infrastructure spending, but that includes broadband and improvements to the electric grid, which many Republicans don’t define as infrastructure, Business Insider reported.

Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has called the infrastructure plan a Senate "liberal wish-list," while House Minority whip Steve Scalise (R-La) has described it as “Soviet-style infrastructure.”

Biden has countered that infrastructure should no longer defined as roads and bridges only.

“The idea of infrastructure has always evolved to meet the aspirations of the American people and their needs,” the president said, NBC reported. “And it's evolving again today through its effect on the lives of working people in America. To automatically say that the only thing that's infrastructure is a highway, a bridge or whatever, that's just not rational. It really isn't."

The United States needs the infrastructure spending package to compete with China, Biden said.

"Do you think China is waiting around to invest in this digital infrastructure, or on research and development?” he said, NBC reported. “I promise you: They are not waiting. But they care counting on American democracy to be too slow, too limited and too divided to keep pace."

The U.S. Treasury Department has unveiled a plan to fund the infrastructure plan by raising corporate income taxes, NBC said.

The tax increases would bring in more than $2 trillion over the next 15 years to fund the package, the story said.