AOC's Civilian Climate Corps, drug price controls, tobacco taxes in Dems' $3.5T 'infrastructure' bill

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The massive $3.5 trillion spending bill being floated by Democrats in Congress contains tens of billions of dollars in spending that advances progressive ideology and liberal causes. 

In a lengthy Twitter thread, Grabien Media Founder Tom Elliot outlined several provisions in the spending bill including $15 million dollars to resource centers for people "who are underserved due to their sexual orientation or gender identity."

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In another provision, over $20 billion dollars is directed to rent support for victims of "stalking" and "dating violence."

The bill also contains $50 million meant to "reduce human-wildlife conflicts on National Forest System land."

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The so-called infrastructure bill has other items from the progressive wish list including free school lunches year-round for runaway and migrant children, doubling most federal cigarette taxes, and $2.25 billion for the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed "Civilian Climate Corps."

"FYI: The word ‘tax’ is used 1,829 times," Elliot added. "The word ‘taxes’ is used 69 times. The word ‘taxation’ is used 7 times. Supposedly all of these new taxes add up to $3.5 trillion."

Democrats insist that the bill, which is currently being debated in the Senate, won’t cost the American taxpayers a cent because it will be "paid for" by ending tax loopholes for the rich. The cigarette tax would not merely tax higher-income Americans

"The bill’s price tag is $0 because it will be paid for by ending failed, special tax giveaways for the richest taxpayers and big corporations, adding nothing to the debt," White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Axios last week. 

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On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed with that claim.

"It's not about a dollar amount," the California Democrat told reporters. "The dollar amount, as the president said, is zero. This bill will be paid for."

Republicans have ripped Build Back Better, a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, as a massive social policy bill that "ultimately provides benefits to wealthy liberal elites at the expense of working-class families." Moderate Democrats, like Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., have also raised concerns about the reconciliation package.

A $1 trillion infrastructure bill that Pelosi wanted a vote on this week in the House is in jeopardy as bitter, intra-party clashes continue among Democrats over the sprawling, separate $3.5 trillion package. Left-wing Democrats have said they will sink the infrastructure package that already passed the U.S. Senate without the "Build Back Better" plan being brought to the floor simultaneously.

However, moderate Democratic Sens. Sinema and Manchin are standing in the way of the latter's passage in its present form over concerns about the price tag.

Fox News’ David Rutz contributed to this report