GOP senator: I’ll be ‘stunned’ if Republicans handle highway fund responsibly

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) had some harsh words for his Republican colleagues Wednesday on highway funding, saying he “will be stunned” if they deal with the issue “responsibly.”

“I will be stunned if the Republicans deal with the Highway Trust Fund responsibly. It’s not going to happen,” he told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

Corker said the “writing is on the wall” that the Senate will pass a short-term extension before transportation funding expires on May 31.

{mosads}The Tennessee Republican slammed Republicans, suggesting that passing a long-term deal on highway funding should be “the first step” for Republicans to show that they can handle fiscal issues.

“The first step to showing that we can responsibly deal with, you know, the fiscal issues that matter is the highway bill, and yet it very much appears to me that there will be a kick the can down the road,” he adding adding that it’s “incredibly irresponsible, total failure, [and a] abdication of leadership. ”

He said that Republicans are “becoming the party of … spending almost the same amount of money, in same cases more, but not paying for it.”

“It’s just not the conservatism that I grew up with, it’s just not the conservatism that Tennessee, as you know, embodies.”