Representative Thomas Massie warned his party that their bill is an absolute disaster.
While Republicans managed to pass their budget bill through the House Thursday morning, one GOP representative was not happy, calling it a “debt bomb ticking.”
Representative Thomas Massie warned his colleagues, still debating in the middle of the night, that he couldn’t vote for a bill that would cut taxes and increase spending.
“I’d love to stand here and tell the American people, we can cut your taxes and we can increase spending and everything’s going to be just fine. But I can’t do that because I’m here to deliver a dose of reality,” Massie said. “This bill dramatically increases deficits in the near term but promises our government will be fiscally responsible five years from now.
“Where have we heard that before? How do you bind a future Congress to these promises? This bill is a debt bomb ticking,” added the Kentucky congressmen, known for his libertarian views. Massie was one of two Republican “no” votes on the bill, along with Representative Warren Davidson of Ohio. One Republican, Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, voted “present.” Every Democrat voted against the bill.
Massie hammered the bill, warning that “very soon, the government will be paying $16,000 of interest, interest alone, per U.S. family,” and that the national debt would skyrocket up to $30 trillion over the next 10 years.
“Congress can do funny math, fantasy math, if it wants,” Massie added. “But bond investors don’t.
“We’re not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonight. We’re putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg,” he added, to applause from other members in the room.
In one final message, Massie laid into his colleagues and his party, saying, “If something is beautiful, you don’t do it after midnight.”
Throughout the budget reconciliation process, Massie has warned that he wouldn’t support the bill, even taking attacks from Donald Trump, who threatened to have him “voted … out of office” on Tuesday. While the GOP passed the bill without him, Trump is known for holding grudges, and could turn most of the Republican Party against Massie in the near future.
Only Two Republicans Were Brave Enough to Vote Against Medicaid Cuts
House Republicans just passed their disastrous tax bill.
House Republicans passed Trump’s “big, beautiful” spending bill by just one vote early Thursday morning.
After hours of deliberation, the bill passed 215–214, an incredibly slim margin that highlights the lack of political cohesion within the GOP. Two Republican representatives—Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio—voted with the Democrats.
The
bill will include even more funding for the military and more funding
for Trump’s border crackdown, while slashing crucial programs like Medicaid, Medicare,
and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and also
repealing clean energy credits put in place by the Biden administration.
Up to 15 million Americans will be uninsured by 2034 due to the bill’s
cuts, and 7.6 million will be at risk of losing Medicaid, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
“What we’re going to do here this morning is truly historic, and it will make all the difference in the daily lives of hardworking Americans.… To put it simply, this bill gets Americans back to winning again, and it’s been a long time coming,” Speaker Mike Johnson said, in a floor speech prior to the vote.
Democrats are accusing the GOP of pushing the anti-working-class bill “under the cover of darkness.”
“Here’s what it will mean for the American people,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, prior to the vote. “Children will get hurt. Women will get hurt. Older Americans who rely on Medicaid for nursing home care and for home care will get hurt. People with disabilities who rely on Medicaid to survive, will get hurt. Hospitals in your districts will close. Nursing homes will shut down. And people will die.”
This story has been updated.
No comments:
Post a Comment