By: Benjamin Fearnow; Newsweek

Republicans are stoking concerns this week as “socialist” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is set to be the next chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, reigniting a longtime GOP fear that Sanders mocked Sunday as he vowed to reduce military spending while boosting corporate tax revenue.

The Vermont Independent and current ranking member of the powerful budget committee posted a video Sunday that shows GOP lawmakers for years expressing their fear that Sanders will become the budget chairman if Democrats win a Senate majority. Sanders is now set to do exactly that after Democrats gained a slight majority following the Georgia runoff elections. Potential 2024 GOP hopeful Nikki Haley pleaded for GOP unity Saturday due to the “harsh reality” that a “socialist” will soon push a progressive Senate agenda. Sanders says he plans to increase infrastructure and climate spending while simultaneously balancing this with decreases in defense spending and raising taxes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations.

The video Sanders released Saturday makes light of Fox News pundits and Republicans who appear terrified of his impending role “controlling the money.”

Sanders swiped at “socialist” worries from former GOP Speaker Paul Ryan, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and other so-called deficit hawks in the video, which highlights his soon-to-be role as chair of the budget committee. Sanders announced his plans to use “aggressive” budget reconciliation efforts in order to create a less lopsided deficit than the one under the current Republican-led committee. Despite fiscal conservatives’ fears of “socialist” spending, Senate Republicans and the Trump administration have created record deficits and skyrocketing national debt.

“If we lose the Senate, do you know who becomes chair of the Senate Budget Committee? A guy named Bernie Sanders. You ever heard of him?” Ryan says in the Sanders video released Sunday, it depicts the GOP speaker warning young Republicans not to allow a Democrat Senate majority.

“If we lose Georgia, Bernie Sanders is the budget chairman,” Graham warned supporters earlier this year during his own Senate campaign.

Haley, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration, told congressional Republicans to worry less about impeachment and more about the new Democrat majority.

“Time to face the harsh reality, socialist Bernie Sanders will become the chairman of the Sen Budget Committee. He has vowed to use his position to enact his progressive agenda on healthcare, climate, infrastructure spending, & cutting defense spending,” she tweeted Saturday.

Sanders has for months said the “needs of working families” can be paid for by “taxing the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations” which pay zero in taxes.

“We just voted on the largest military budget in the history of this country, $740 billion. The Pentagon can’t even do an independent audit. There’s an enormous amount of waste in that budget. No one worries about that. But when it comes to the mom and dad who are struggling to put food on the table for their kids, oh my God! We’re worried about the deficit,” Sanders says in the video released Saturday.

Ryan’s remarks back in 2016 initially backfired and allowed Sanders to use his comments in fundraising appeals that brought in $2 million in just two days for Democratic Senate candidates. But ultimately the GOP speaker’s warning resonated with Republicans and they maintained a slight Senate majority that November. Democrats did gain two Senate seats in the same election which brought Trump into the White House. Ryan’s plan at the time was ridiculed by Sanders and many progressives who criticized the bloated military budget alongside drastic reductions in domestic welfare programs.

Sanders has also expressed his support for President-elect Joe Biden‘s first proposed installment of a COVID-19 relief plan, although Sanders has reiterated his staunch support of $2,000 direct payments to struggling eligible individuals. Sanders last week said his budget plans for pandemic relief should also include $15-an-hour minimum wage requirements, a halt on evictions and a 10 percent decrease in the military budget.

Sanders announced last Tuesday that he plans to use a budget reconciliation process allowing for expedited passage of financial legislation. The senator accused Republicans of using that tactic for years “to pass massive tax breaks for the rich and large corporations with a simple majority vote. As the incoming Chairman of the Budget Committee, I will fight to use the same process to boldly address the needs of working families.”