CHEYENNE — In an interview on Thursday last week, U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., discussed her opposition to many of the federal policies pushed by President Joe Biden in his address to Congress this week, stating Democrats are trying to “fundamentally change the American social structure” through reckless spending.

The state’s newest federal delegate spoke with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle the morning after Biden delivered his first speech before a joint session of Congress, in which he outlined his priorities and stated “we have to prove democracy still works.”

Lummis, the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Wyoming, did not attend the speech in person, unlike the state’s other two delegates, instead watching from home, though she criticized the limited seating allowed as an unnecessary COVID-19 precaution.

“Everybody who wants to be vaccinated is vaccinated in the building, so I considered it just political theater to have that few people attend and have them continue to bump elbows and wear masks when that’s no longer necessary in the U.S. Capitol building,” Lummis said.

Just over 100 days into her six-year term in Washington, D.C., the senator criticized the Biden administration’s spending policies, the Democrats’ infrastructure proposal and the overall climate in the Capitol.

On Wednesday, Biden unveiled a $1.8 trillion proposal called the American Families Plan, which would expand community college and pre-K opportunities, reduce the cost of child care and offer new health care credits, and would be financed through additional taxes on the highest income earners.

Lummis bashed the plan as a “progressive grab bag” that would cause everyday citizens and the next generation of Americans to foot the bill, arguing it would also lead to tax hikes on middle-income earners.

“It turns pre-kindergarten and community colleges into new entitlement programs, and you know our country can’t afford that right now,” Lummis said. “We can’t even dig out of the hole we’ve already dug for ourselves, and the tax increases would slow down and, in some cases, actually wreck elements of our economy.”

Explaining the parties’ divergent approaches, Lummis contrasted Republicans’ focus on “equality of opportunity” with something Democrats have spoken of: equity.

“Equity is the thing where we all have equal pay, regardless of whether we’re working or not, or what jobs we do,” Lummis said. “It’s about a concept that is more akin to socialism, and I know that Republicans get accused of being overreactive when we use terms like socialism as applied to the progressive agenda, but we’re not wrong.”

Wyoming’s junior senator also offered her support for a Republican counter proposal on infrastructure funding, which came in response to Biden’s roughly $2.3 trillion proposal, known as the American Jobs Plan. The president’s proposal, which would be funded through increased corporate income taxes, outlines money to rebuild 20,000 miles of roads and 10,000 bridges, along with investments aiming to reduce global climate change.