Congressional Cowards is a weekly collection highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—irrespective of how disgraceful or lawless his actions.
Overlook Elon Musk—congressional Republicans are dealing with new fury from voters, this time for voting in assist of President Donald Trump’s “One Large, Lovely Invoice Act,” which proposes slashes the social security internet to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
Two Republicans courageous sufficient to carry city halls—Reps. Mike Flood of Nebraska and Ashley Hinson of Iowa—have been each met by indignant voters who questioned their assist for a invoice that may strip away medical insurance, meals assist, and extra from tens of millions of People.
Hinson was booed by the viewers in her deeply Republican district after she stated that she was “proud” to vote for the invoice.
“It is a generational funding …” Hinson stated, trailing off because the boos drowned her out.
And when Hinson claimed that judges who rule in opposition to Trump are engaged in “egregious abuses,” she was met by chants from the viewers calling her a “fraud.”
In the meantime, Flood additionally confronted indignant voters in his closely Republican district, with Flood unable to defend sure provisions within the invoice, together with a last-minute addition that may make it tougher for federal judges to implement contempt rulings.
“This provision was unknown to me once I voted for the invoice,” Flood stated, admitting that he didn’t learn the invoice, which GOP management put up for debate in the course of the evening simply minutes after releasing the amended textual content.
Provided that Home Republicans handed the dogshit invoice proper earlier than Memorial Day weekend, few different GOP lawmakers have had time to carry city halls to see if this anger is widespread.
However polling exhibits that voters don’t assist chopping Medicaid and meals stamps to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. So these shows of rage might be just the start for GOP lawmakers—most of whom have been hiding from their constituents by both holding closely scripted occasions or eschewing city halls altogether.
Now Home Republicans are attempting to blunt the backlash by mendacity about what the laws does. After the invoice handed, the Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee, which seeks to elect Republicans to the Home, issued a memo falsely claiming that it wouldn’t minimize Medicaid.
“The One Large, Lovely Invoice is greater than a messaging alternative; it’s a midterm roadmap. Republicans should drive this distinction, simplify our message, and goal Democrats daily. That is about fraud vs households. That is about taxes vs take-home pay. That is about securing the border vs subsidizing chaos. That is about placing working households first, not final,” the memo stated.
After all, impartial analyses present that tens of millions of People will lose Medicaid protection and Inexpensive Care Act subsidies. And the bottom earnings brackets will truly see their take-home pay decline because of the invoice, ought to Trump signal it into legislation.
Certainly, Home Democrats are already gearing up to make use of this vote to hammer Republicans within the 2026 midterms.
“Because the economic system is tanking, shopper confidence is at historic lows, and tens of millions are struggling to make ends meet, Home Republicans determined to disregard all of it… and advance an astonishingly detrimental invoice – the GOP Tax Rip-off – that raises prices on working households whereas benefiting the wealthiest few,” the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee wrote in a memo.
“It’s a vote that each single susceptible Home Republican will come to remorse subsequent yr,” it stated.
In the meantime, Senate Republicans at the moment are having their flip to amend the laws, they usually’re doing their typical efficiency of claiming that they will not again the invoice as a result of it provides to the deficit.
“Within the Home, President Trump can threaten a main. These guys wish to maintain their seats, I perceive the stress. He can’t stress me that manner,” Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who says he gained’t vote for the invoice as a result of it will increase the deficit, instructed Punchbowl Information.
However given how cowardly Republicans proceed to show themselves to be, there’s little doubt that they’ll fall consistent with Expensive Chief.
