'Grow up': House Dem says 'too much is at stake' to waste time appeasing 'idiot wing' of GOP

10 November 2023

Rep. Sean Casten (D-Illinois) unleashed on his Republican colleagues in a 16-tweet thread on Friday, urging them to "grow up" and govern before a "disastrous" government shutdown paralyzes federal agencies eight days from now.

In his thread, Rep. Casten contrasted the way Democrats wielded their House majority with Republicans' more chaotic time in charge of the House of Representatives. He explained that because Congress operates on a fiscal year schedule that ends on September 30, Democratic leaders like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) made sure the House passed its funding bills by the end of August each session so there was plenty of time for the US Senate to review appropriations and for the president to sign them into law.

When Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) still held the speaker's gavel, Rep. Casten pointed out that he was so incompetent at keeping his caucus in line that simply following the law by keeping the government funded was seen as beyond the pale by his caucus.

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"They tried to just say 'cut everything by 30%'. That didn't pass. So they said 'let's just fund at current levels for 45 days'. That cost McCarthy his job," Casten tweeted.

Casten went on to explain that the House Republican Conference spent 20 of those critical 45 days not governing, but squabbling over who would be their next speaker.

"Should we pick someone who hates gay people, fought to overturn the election or creeps on his son's porn? It took a while, but the @HouseGOP finally said YES to all three," Casten tweeted, tagging the official account of the Republican conference.

The next several tweets in Casten's thread named a laundry list of bills that satisfied far-right priorities but that had no chance of passing a Democratic-run senate, much less getting the signature of a Democratic president. Some the measures Johnson put to a vote included proposals to pay $1 annual salaries to Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as well as bills to significantly reduce if not outright eliminate funding for gun violence prevention, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"These things aren't urgent. They aren't helpful. And they aren't going to become law," Rep. Casten tweeted. "But they keep the idiot wing of the @HouseGOP from turning on their rookie manager. And waste 435 people's time on the House floor."

Casten urged his GOP colleagues to "get their s**t together" as a shutdown would be disastrous for "soldiers, air traffic controllers, food safety inspectors, IRS agents, [and] border patrol" along with other necessary government functions.

"PLEASE @HouseGOP. Grow up. Stop fighting with your brother and sister in the backseat," he added. "Either act like the adults you claim to be or at least have the dignity to go to your room so the adults can babysit your sorry selves. Too much is at stake."

Click here to read Casten's full thread.

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