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@ Daily Kos
2025-05-25 19:08:19
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Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions. After weeks of bellyaching that Donald Trump's "One Big, Beautiful, Bill" added too much to the deficit and didn't make enough draconian cuts to Medicaid, House Republicans all caved and voted for the shit sandwich of a budget that rips health care away from millions of Americans, will leave millions of low-income families hungry, makes college more expensive, and cuts clean energy investments—all to only partially pay for tax cuts that benefit the richest few. Multiple Republicans in the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, who hours earlier had panned the legislation as a deficit-exploding dud, turned around and voted for the bill in the early hours of Thursday morning—all because their Dear Leader threatened them with primary challenges if they didn't fold, saying voting against the bill would be the “ultimate betrayal.” House Freedom Caucus members claimed they voted for the legislation because of last-minute changes GOP leadership made that slashed Medicaid funding and phased out clean energy tax credits more quickly. Those tax credits were passed by Democrats in the Inflation Reduction Act and have created jobs, many of them in states Trump carried in 2024. "This morning, Members of the House Freedom Caucus delivered the votes necessary to advance President Trump’s agenda after securing significant wins in making the reconciliation bill the most conservative version possible—much more conservative than the original House GOP proposal in January that would have achieved a measly $300 billion in deficit reduction," the House Freedom Caucus said in a statement, taking a victory lap for a bill that will add at least $3.8 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, freaking out bond investors who no longer view the United States as a safe place to invest their money. No member caved harder than Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who for days had been warning of the damage the deficit-increasing legislation would do to the economy, only to vote for the bill Thursday morning. Roy had tanked the bill in a House Budget Committee hearing last week, but he voted for the bill in the end. "We moved the needle a lot in the last 72 hours, " he told CNBC on Thursday, YouTube Video Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania had also been noncommittal in the days before the vote, arguing the legislation added too much to the debt. "I get tired of hearing 'no one really cares about the debt,'" Perry wrote in a post on X on Monday. "Yes. Yes they do." But you guessed it—Perry caved after the Trump meeting. “I never said I was a no, but I said I had concerns," Perry told CNN. "Now that we have the text, we're going to go through it.” YouTube Video Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee had also squawked about not voting for the bill but in the end did just that, telling that he’s unhappy it increases the budget, "I don't like that one bit, but I don't know what the other option is right now,” he whined. In fact, that’s the excuse other GOP lawmakers made as well, including Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri, who said the House Freedom Caucus gave in because they had no other choice. So much for sticking to their convictions on the deficit. “I think that there's a moment where you just kind of take a collective pause and say we've accomplished a lot, and so we just have been—we've been heads down in this fight for so long,” Burlison rambled to CNN. YouTube Video The only Republicans who stuck to their convictions were Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio, who both voted no because of the amount the bill adds to the deficit. And both may now pay a political price for that, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump wants to recruit primary challengers to oust them from Congress. The bill now heads to the Senate, where hard-line Republicans are voicing similar concerns about the legislation’s impact on the federal deficit, while others are complaining about the bill’s Medicaid cuts. They claim they won't cave. “In the House, President Trump can threaten a primary. Those guys want to keep their seats, I understand the pressure. He can’t pressure me that way," Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told Punchbowl News. In the immortal words of Marcia Brady: "Sure, Jan." Campaign Action
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